The University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
with VMDO Architects

Challenged with creating an infrastructural system aimed at meeting the comprehensive stormwater management goals for the next decade of development at The University of Virginia, the site design of the John Paul Jones Arena integrates site and regional hydrology with ecology and cultural programming. Virtually the entire site is an armature for collecting and cleaning runoff while simultaneously choreographing the movements of people to and from events at the new Arena.

This project is significant as an example of how utility can be woven beautifully into the human experience of a place. The coordination of site flows recognizes movements by water and people as being strongly related and having both functional and poetic qualities. Water management strategies and functional native plant community gardens define the experience of people that inhabit the site. This integration is carried out across scales, from the overall topographic form to the smallest site detail.