Red River Civic Plaza : an urban park destination for Fargo-Moorhead Community

Abstract

The City of Fargo, North Dakota, is funding the construction of a new City Hall to replace their current 1960s structure. This proposed development provides the largest city in North Dakota with a tremendous opportunity to design an iconic open space between their Civic Center, Public Library, and their proposed City Hall. This research focuses on the integration of low impact development into the Red River Civic Plaza to manage stormwater by utilizing bioretention, green roofs, porous pavements, and rainwater harvesting to reduce the demand for the current engineered water conveyance systems consisting of gutters, storm sewers, culverts, and detention basins. The Red River Civic Plaza provides the Fargo-Moorhead community with three sets of benefits: economic, environmental and sociological. This research quantifies the volume of stormwater run-off prior to development, and identifies the cost effectiveness of low impact development over time compared to our current engineered water conveyance systems, as well as its environmental and sociological benefits in the landscape. The Red River Civic Plaza will serve as a year-round urban park destination for the Fargo-Moorhead community.