BOSTON—Nitsch Engineering won an Excellence in Landscape Architecture Merit Award from the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP) for the firm’s work on the University of Virginia’s (UVA’s) Meadow Creek Regional Stormwater Management Master Plan. Nitsch Engineering was the only engineering firm to win an award in SCUP’s annual award competition.

To support UVA’s plans for development in the Meadow Creek watershed, Nitsch Engineering created a plan that manages stormwater on a regional basis—using key locations at the Dell Pond, the Emmet Street and Ivy Road parking garage, and the John Paul Jones Arena—instead of a building-by-building basis. The plan uses natural systems such as created wetlands, daylighted streams, and feature ponds to manage stormwater in a way that decreased costs, improved water quality, decreased stormwater flow from campus, and created beautiful campus amenities.

"One of the most interesting things about the Meadow Creek Plan is that we were able to find a solution to managing the quantity and quality of the site’s stormwater runoff in a way that is aesthetically pleasing," said Nitsch Engineering President Judith Nitsch, PE, LEED AP. "The Dell was the first visual outcome of the stormwater master plan. It’s a beautiful campus amenity that also performs stormwater management functions, such as reducing flooding, decreasing erosion, and improving stormwater quality to the city of Charlottesville downstream."

Nitsch Engineering has applied lessons learned from UVA to similar stormwater projects at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton universities. SCUP also recognized Nitsch Engineering for its work with Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners on the Princeton Campus Plan, which won an Excellence in Planning for an Established Campus Honor Award.