LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The American Council of Engineering Companies Arkansas Chapter (ACEC Arkansas) awarded the 2016 recipients of its prestigious Engineering Excellence Awards at the Arkansas Art Center on Thursday, March 17. The Grand Conceptor Award, the top-rated project, was announced and presented to the engineering design firm Crafton Tull and the City of Little Rock for the Main Street Water Quality Demonstration Project.

This project, paid for by funding from the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC) and the City of Little Rock, was inspired by an earlier Greening of America’s Capitals grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.  In September 2012, the City of Little Rock selected local design firm Crafton Tull to provide surveying, landscape architecture, civil, structural, and electrical engineering services for the project. Crafton Tull worked closely with City staff, ANRC, community stakeholders, and the University of Arkansas Community Design Center (UACDC), which was responsible for conceptual designs and technical guidance on the project.

The Water Quality Demonstration Project provides a significant milestone in Main Street Little Rock’s revitalization, serving as an example of urban Low Impact Development (LID) and environmental education to the state and region, as well as the heart of the Creative Corridor. Among the project’s notable features, are an outdoor classroom space bordered by vegetated walls on the 200 block of Main, a pervious paver gateway with light garden in the 300 block, and a bioswale boardwalk with LED lighting in the 500 Block.

“I am extremely proud to see this concept of highly functioning low impact development come to fruition,” Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola said. “Our partnership with Crafton Tull, as well as our other partners, has been a labor of love, and we are grateful for the recognition.”

Besides providing an outdoor education venue for students of all ages, the Creative Corridor serves as an integral component in a public investment of roughly $2.5 million which resulted in an estimated $100 million in development.

The two awards from ACEC make a total of 13 national and international awards for the Creative Corridor project, with honors coming from the American Institute of Architects, The American Society of Landscape Architects, and Arkansas Business Cities of Distinction, to name a few.