G Brown Design, Inc. worked with EDA Architects, Salt Lake County, Herriman City, and the adjacent High School to develop and take the site layout and design for both the Herriman City Library and the J.L. Sorenson Recreation Center from schematic drawings to final bid documents. Because of their close proximity to each other, each building’s landscape was designed to utilize many of the same site features such as a large plaza designed for informal play, relaxing, reading, and performing, a 370 stall parking lot, and a planting “ribbon” which visually ties both projects together. One of the guiding influences to design for both projects was to become Platinum LEED Certified building. G Brown Design contributed to this goal by reducing the water usage by 50% which resulted in capturing credit 1.1. This was accomplished by using native and adaptive plant material, reducing the amount of turf used throughout the site, and using drip irrigation in all plant beds. Credit 7.1 was captured by reducing the heat island effect through the use of low albedo paving materials coupled with shade potential from trees. Credit 4.4 was also captured by locating and designating a specified number of parking stalls for alternative transportation parking.
