The design challenge for this project was the planning of 750,000 square feet of office space on an environmentally sensitive 118-acre site strategically located at the juncture of three interstate highways. In order to avoid impacts on an adjacent residential neighborhood only one access to the site was available for use. This access required a major wetland and stream crossing through an area zoned as a Water Resource Protection District. These wetlands bisected the site, rendering the more developable portion of the site inaccessible unless strategies could be developed for crossing the wetlands.
Complex environmental, legislative and political issues had to be properly identified and addressed during the planning and permitting phases of this development in order to overcome the limitations imposed by the wetlands. Innovative planning design strategies consolidated what could have been a four to five year approval process to less than 14 months, and within 2-1/2 years of starting the project, the Client was able to construct 50% of the development.
