Government > City Departments/Offices > Public Works > Capital Projects > Gotts Court / Visitors Ctr. Lot

This area serves as the entry point for visitors to Annapolis and the meeting point for tours.

In the Fall of 2009, the City of Annapolis, Department of Public Works, began reconstruction on the Gotts Court / Annapolis Visitors Center parking lot . O’Doherty Group Landscape Architecture prepared alternate schemes, renderings, design development and construction documents for the site redevelopment. The concept is quite spectacular! Some are referring to this new project as a “Parking Garden”. Rain gardens and Maryland indigenous plants are being incorporated throughout the site. Zora Lathan, of The Chesapeake Ecology Center on Clay Street, contributed to the selection of plants.

Bay Engineering, designed the innovative storm water treatment system for the project.

Included are the following features:

• Historic setting and rehabilitation.
• Green building techniques will serve as an example for the community.
• Parking efficiency.
• On-site storm water management to minimize conveyance and improve water quality.
• Permeable paving to increase infiltration of runoff.
• The central rain garden harvests parking lot runoff and treats water through plants and media filtration before releasing it into the drainage system.
• Recycled paving materials have been used to accent the design and increase its sustainability.
• Native plants in the gardens reduce the need for irrigation and increase pest resistance.
• Existing grades have been modified to allow on-site storm water treatment and protection of buried archeological resources.
• The project site is completely ADA compliant.

Funds are provided by the new American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

The project was completed in June 2010.