OvS is pleased to announce that two of our projects were selected for the Sustainable Sites Pilot Program.

The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES™) is a partnership of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the United States Botanic Garden, and was created to promote sustainable land development and management practices that can apply to sites with and without buildings.

The two Oehme, van Sweden projects that have been selected are:

• The Chicago Botanic Garden’s Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center: A 38,000 square foot facility, completed by Oehme van Sweden & Associates in 2009. The site contains a Rain Water Glen that filters storm water run-off and a 16,000 square foot green roof open to the public.

• The New York Botanical Garden’s New Native Plant Garden: To be completed in 2012, this is a 3.5 acre garden made out of sustainable materials, designed to attract visitors with the diversity and beauty of native plans. This project was generously funded by the Leon Levy Foundation.

Projects accepted as part of the SITES pilot program will be the first to demonstrate the application of The Sustainable Sites Initiative: Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009, released on November 5, 2009. Feedback from the pilot projects will be used to revise the final rating system and inform the technical reference manual.