Permeable Pavers at Amana's Hotel Millwright are a Gift that Keeps Giving

Credit to CalcamAp

December 13, 2019
For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Jeff Popenhagen
Amana Society
Cell: 319-560-0308

(Amana, Iowa) - 150-year-old architecture. 2020 completion date. 17,000 permeable pavers. Historic preservation, economic development, and stormwater management converge at Hotel Millwright.

Located in Amana, the new boutique hotel is demonstrating that responsibly managing stormwater runoff in an attractive, meaningful way isn’t just a luxury reserved for large metro areas. By incorporating permeable paver areas into the design, water that falls on the site will be filtered through two layers of limestone rock—cleaning and cooling it before it enters Price Creek, which is only seventy-five feet from the complex.

Hotel Millwright worked in collaboration with the Iowa County Soil & Water Conservation District to make this project possible. “The Amana Colonies offer a powerful opportunity to showcase urban conservation practices, both to local Iowans and tourists from around the country. We hope that these practices can raise awareness of stormwater management,” stated Rose Danaher, Price Creek Watershed Project Coordinator.

This year, the Amana Colonies received one of the eleven statewide Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship’s Urban Water Quality Grants. The funds provide for community planning, feasibility assessments, and the implementation of conservation infrastructure, which are all critical parts of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy (NRS). Besides permeable pavers, the Hotel Millwright complex will be implementing a bio-retention area and native landscaping to treat up to eighty percent of stormwater from the project site.

The eight-acre Amana Woolen Mill complex and future site of Hotel Millwright was once the industrial center of the village of Amana. “We are continuing our production of Amana blankets and are excited to share the site conservation practices with our guests,” says Jeff Popenhagen, Director of Marketing for the Amana Society. “We love that the permeable pavers are in a herringbone pattern, which is one of our most popular textile weaves. It adds to the already special story we’re telling with the design of Hotel Millwright.”

To learn more about the Hotel Millwright project, visit www.hotelmillwright.com.