In collaboration with the Albuquerque mayor's office and ABQ Ride, Albuquerque’s largest architecture firm, Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, has been contracted to design the landscaping surrounding the upcoming Albuquerque Rapid Transit project.
Construction is set to begin this month, focusing on landscaping medians and designing transit system stations.
These plans include bold and modern designs, intended to showcase several of Albuquerque’s native plant species and to experiment with new green infrastructure techniques.
Mimi Burns, a principal and landscape architect at Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, said she hopes the addition of these innovative designs and native plants will help to tie into the urban fabric and reinforce a sense of place for New Mexicans.
Burns described the initial vision as focusing on adding continuity and re-vegetation to the corridor, while also providing the community with a connection to nature.
The idea is for the designs to be eye catching and serve to improve the attractiveness of the transit and surrounding businesses, she said. So far there have been several setbacks to the designs, as the engineering of the project is constantly changing with new input from community members.
"The amount that we could actually improve has just been this moving target for the entire project. As the engineering changed, our amount of work changed,” Burns said.
However, she said that though the specifics of the designs are still adapting, the vision and principles of the plans have remained the same.
While Burns has been concerned with the visioning and conceptual aspects of the plans, landscape architects Courtney McKelvey and Jitka Dekojova have been tasked with creating the designs.
Dekojova said this has involved several constraints, specifically in regard to various street regulations.
One of the biggest restrictions has been construction around underground utilities, which requires four feet of clearance from any landscaping, she said. Furthermore, any trees planted cannot have branches sticking out into the street or impair any drivers' vision.
Dekojova said finding ways to work around these obstacles has required long hours and meticulous efforts from McKelvey and herself to try and find the perfect placement for each of the plants and trees involved.
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“I think it was fun to figure out plants for each location. To look at the whole corridor coming through the city and how the environment changes from the Westside to the foothills and kind of figure out, OK these plants would work here better,” she said. “We are going through UNM, what (are) the traditional species? How could we celebrate UNM and reflect the area? I think that’s been a fun part.”
Another important aspect of the project is the inclusion of green infrastructure, which is a big step for the city, Burns said.
“The EPA has mandated that we are supposed to take care of our water before it hits the river. So this is a good step,” she said.
These practices will include permeable paving in Nob Hill, which will allow people to walk across medians and accept runoff to supplement water toward surrounding trees, Burns said.
For improved tree growth, the plans include tree trenches allowing for roots to grow alongside curbs, she said. The architects are also planning to experiment with bio soils, which will be able to collect storm water.
With construction due to begin in August - pending the results of an ongoing lawsuit between the city and some citizens - Burns said she is satisfied with the current state of the design plans, adding that she is impressed with the work of McKelvey and Dekojova.
“Really the constraints are enormous and we didn’t know who was going to be maintaining it as we were finishing up our drawings,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a tremendous improvement.”
