Water Resources

Rain Garden, Oregon Convention Center

To address the impacts that water runoff from an expansion project was making to an existing combined sewer system, the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Ore., contracted DEA to find a solution.

DEA collaborated with other design team members to create a system where stormwater runoff is collected and directed to downspouts that discharge directly into a water quality system called the "rain garden."

The system features a series of eight cascading narrow, shallow pools separated by seven basalt weirs. The pool channels are rock lined, with edges planted with materials appropriate for their level of water inundation.

DEA provided the conceptual design, final grading design, and hydraulic modeling and design services for the 318-foot-long combination of pools, plants, cobbles and basalt columns.