The Commons at Tulane Overlook a Sustainable Raingarden while Dining

The recently completed 77,000 sf three-story building replaces a decades old dining hall with state-of-the-art dining facilities. A 9,000 sf raingarden and vegetated swale wraps the north and west facades and can detain and treat roughly twice the amount of stormwater required by code. While the raingarden certainly satisfies a technical function it also provides a unique setting for the building and contributes to the indoor-outdoor relationship as the main building spaces look over and are immersed within the garden. The landscape surrounding the new building is primarily performative and captures all the stormwater from the immediate area including the building roof. More