Challenge
Challenged with adapting to changing training and equipment maintenance requirements, Fort Pickett needed to re-organize mission areas to allow greater flexibility of land use, while meeting contemporary state stormwater regulations and federal energy efficiency mandates. The Virginia Department of Military Affairs selected WSP to prepare the Real Property Master Plan for Fort Pickett.
Solution
Through a series of planning workshops and interviews, WSP helped the Fort Pickett leadership and stakeholders clarify their mission and develop a planning vision, goals and objectives, and plan for development. The plan provides strategies for:
- Modernizing the buildings and infrastructure.
- Meeting the Virginia Army National Guard’s statewide net-zero energy goals.
- Improving security and adaptability of facilities.
In both the trainee housing and industrial areas, related functions are consolidated into campuses, with pedestrian-related functions placed along a core street or open space while loading, maintenance and parking are oriented to parallel, heavy-duty roadways. This has the benefits of reducing road maintenance, improving pedestrian safety and wayfinding and creating opportunities to incorporate stormwater management into the urban design, blending it with other outdoor amenities. By combining dry swales with low walls to create a vehicle barrier around the perimeter of a building cluster, security requirements can be met while maintaining a visually open landscape.
