Goffstown, NH ‑ Currently under construction on Mast Road in the Pinardville section of Goffstown, Abingdon Square is a new mixed-use development built on the principles of “walkable urbanism”. When complete, the development will combine retail, residential, and office buildings in a compact, pedestrian-friendly setting.
Walkable urbanism is the name given to new, higher-density developments that are designed to encourage people to walk, rather than drive, to their daily destinations. According to TFMoran’s Chief Landscape Architect, Anne Cruess, “Pleasant and restful places for pedestrians can be created anywhere, even in the middle of a busy, commercial strip. When people are out walking on sidewalks and in parks, it shows that an area is safe and interesting, and attracts others to stop and visit too.”
Inspired by its namesake Abingdon Square in New York City, the focal point of the development is a classically-inspired urban park. “We put the park right up front, part of the streetscape. It provides a welcome sense of physical and visual relief in an otherwise very cluttered part of town,” adds Cruess. “Around the park, we blended the development’s residential and commercial uses into a cohesive, functional layout. We then had our engineers make it work from the traffic, utility, and drainage perspectives, to satisfy Town and State permitting requirements.”
“The surrounding features of the land required careful attention to grading and drainage,” says Project Engineer Nick Golon. “So we used a variety of stormwater management practices. On some parts of the site we have underground drainage chambers; in other areas we have porous pavements; and in the front parking lot we designed a ‘rain garden’ for eye appeal as well as function.”
Rain gardens are a relatively new concept in treating stormwater runoff from pavements, where the runoff is directed into landscaped basins large enough to handle a 25-year storm. The soils and plantings in the basins are designed to filter out contaminants before discharging the runoff to groundwater, surface water, or into municipal storm sewers. “The steep slopes adjacent to Mystic Brook were another critical site feature, and we were careful not to disturb the integrity of those slopes by grading the site to closely replicate the existing drainage patterns,” explains Golon.
Traffic was another major concern of Town planners because the project is located on a heavily-travelled Town road. “There was a lot of resistance to putting in another traffic signal along that section of Mast Road,” recalls Chief Engineer Robert Duval. “Many people originally felt that congestion would only get worse. However, by coordinating the new signal with nearby signals we actually improved traffic flow through the area. More importantly, we were able to provide a push-button for pedestrians to access the development. The ‘all-red’ pedestrian phase greatly enhances pedestrian safety, particularly for children and the elderly.”
“It is the pedestrian amenities that make this development attractive to tenants,” adds Cruess. The first phase of the development included the park and a Rite Aid pharmacy that opened in July. Twenty-five workforce housing units facing Mystic Brook are currently under construction. NeighborWorks Greater Manchester is building and managing these rental units. “Designing walkable neighborhoods is the key to creating a successful community.”
Robert Duval, PE, LEED AP is chief engineer and principal of TFMoran Inc in Bedford, NH.
TFM is a regionally recognized land planning, civil, structural and traffic engineering, land surveying and landscape architectural firm with over forty years of continuous service to private and public clients.
