Campus Feature Honors College Rain Garden Purdue’s rain gardens, shallow impressions in the ground filled with beautiful native plants, help improve water quality in the nearby Wabash River and Harrison Pond. Rain garden plants capture 30% more water than a typical lawn and act as a filter, helping to remove fertilizers, pesticides, oils, and other contaminants coming from our roofs, lawns, driveways, or parking lots. This practice mimics natural hydrology by infiltrating, evaporating and transpiring stormwater runoff. Rain gardens also serve…
Campus Feature Horticulture Building Rain Garden The rain garden planting at the Horticulture building diverts roof runoff from the combined sewer and transfers it to the ground in front of the building. The paver entrance walk exposes the water coming down from the downstops for people to be able to see it for themselves. Student inputs were also sought from two different classes on planting and layout construction design, so that the rain garden partly reflects their work. Faculty inputs were…
Campus Feature M. Katherine Banks Green Roof Laboratory The green roof laboratory was constructed atop the Delon and Elizabeth Hampton Hall of Civil Engineering to give students the opportunity to study sustainability in a real-world setting. The roof contains different plant and soil media, instruments to measure energy flux and a weather station, along with benches and tables for students to gather. More information Purdue Exponent Website .
Campus Feature Marriott Hall Stormwater Infiltration Beds Buried in the front yard of the $13 million Marriott Hall, housing the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, are long subsurface gravel infiltration beds to allow roof runoff to infiltrate into the ground. The infiltration beds, completed in 2011, are not visible to the naked eye, however. There is also porous concrete on the surface drive at the north side of the building, to help water infiltrate into the ground. Marriott Hall was designed…
Campus Feature Matthew Kern Garden Native Plantings The Matthew Kern Memorial Garden, located between Russell Street and the Purdue golf course, was the university's first native planting. The garden was dedicated in 1996, after the untimely demise of Purdue student Kern, by his parents. The garden was planted by Kern's family, friends, and volunteers across campus. In addition to planting native varieties, such as purple and yellow cone flowers, bluebird houses were also built to promote greater bio-diversity. To honor Kern's memory,…
Campus Feature Mollenkopf Athletic Center Parking Lot Bioswales are planted near streets or parking lots to capture and control the flow of surface water runoff. They are also designed to treat the water by allowing the vegetation to filter pollutants such as oil and grease. Bioswales containing native plant life require very little water and care and are resistant to local pests, disease and weed infestations. Bioswales also increase the attractiveness of parking lots with landscape features that provide food and shelter…
Campus Feature Porous Paving on Stadium Mall Crosswalks Four of the crosswalks along Stadium Mall have porous paving, as part of a long-term plan to convert the area to a pedestrian mall. Purdue University took the opportunity presented by the re-working of the crosswalks to install porous paving systems, so as to divert stormwater runoff from the buildings to the north east of the mall away from the combined sewer system. In addition to allowing stormwater to penetrate into the ground instead of…
Campus Feature Stadium Parking Lot Bioswales Installing the bioswales at the east side of the stadium parking lot was completed in 2012, after a campuswide stormwater study identified the opportunities at that location. Earlier, because the parking lot had been entirely paved, excess stormwater flowed downhill during heavy rains and cause congestion problems near Ford Dining Court, so that there was a need to divert drainage into adequate infiltration infrastructure. Now, with the constructed bioswales, if rains persist, then the overflow…
Campus Feature Yue-Kong Pao Hall Bioswales The bioswales installed in 2007 at the Yue-Kong Pao Hall, housing the Rueff School of Visual & Performing Arts, were the first true bioswales on campus. When the gravel parking lot was converted to the paved version, bioswales became natural and cost-effective solution. The bioswales were designed to capture and control the flow of surface water runoff, and to treat the water by allowing vegetation to filter oil and grease pollutants. A dense planting of…
