CRWA in the NewsWGBH building criticized for inadequate 'green' featuresAllston, Mass. - A member of the Charles River Watershed Association critiqued the new WGBH building and its parking lot during a workshop at the Allston-Brighton Community Development Corporation on Monday, July 16. Using a photograph of WGBH’s new Brighton studios in her slideshow presentation — on which a portion of the asphalted parking lot with some recently planted young trees were seen — CRWA urban restoration specialist Pallavi Kalia Mande said the WGBH building and its parking lot were not designed with stormwater management issues in mind. She said the trees that were planted on the property do not do enough to catch stormwater runoff, and the materials that were used for the sidewalk, the parking lot and the ramps could have been more pervious. She also said the planting beds could have been terraced so that water would stay in them longer. “They’ve done some planting there, but it could have been much better,” she said. “There was a way to catch runoff and have it infiltrate into the earth, but it wasn’t really designed for that.” Urban runoff contains contaminants, such as oil and grease, and it contributes to the corrosion of riverbanks, Mande said. Streets such as Market Street that lead directly to the Charles deposit these contaminants into the river. But according to Jeanne Hopkins, the vice president for communications at WGBH, the public broadcasting station’s new studios do a better job managing stormwater than the old facility. The new studios have a retention tank that collects rainwater from the roof of the building and allows it to trickle slowly into the ground, Hopkins said. WGBH is also planning to plant vegetation on the roof to absorb water. According to Hopkins, the old building did not have these environmentally friendly features. In addition to this, WGBH also planted 36 trees on its own property, as well as on Market and North Beacon Street, Hopkins said. With regard to the parking area, Hopkins said that WGBH is using a parking garage that was already on the property when the land was purchased. “The parking we really couldn’t have affected because we are using the garage that is already built,” she said. Other environmentally friendly features of the facility, Hopkins said, include pavement that reflects as much light as possible; plants and ground cover designed so water will permeate slowly into the ground; and retaining chamber under plantings that would also allow water to drain slowly. Mande said she did not want to be too critical of WGBH, because the Charles River Watershed Association did not work with WGBH during the building process. “Had we gotten involved earlier, things could have been done differently,” Mande said. “They probably wanted to do the right thing, but at that point they probably didn’t realize what they were doing.” Mande said the property, or portions of it, can always be redesigned for better stormwater management, and added that she is hoping the CDC will organize residents to put pressure on the Lowe’s home improvement store chain — that is expected to build a store in Allston — to address water-management issues and avoid contributing to runoff on Market Street. “The opportunity was lost with WGBH, we’re hopefully not going to lose that opportunity with Lowe’s,” she said.
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