Amazon Robotic Sort Fulfillment Center

The Amazon Robotic Sort (ARS) Fulfillment center is a 3.5M SF robotic sortation warehouse. The project is an infill redevelopment of the former Cortana Mall in north Baton Rouge, LA, at the junction of LA Hwy 61 (Airline Highway) and LA Hwy 190 (Florida Boulevard). The project includes innovative features that increase stormwater storage, increase green space, and integrate water quality improvements into an existing urban watershed. CSRS was the site/civil design consultant and performed the initial site feasibility analysis, H&H modeling, water quality design, and full site/civil landscape architecture design through the final design, including H&H modeling of the interconnected ponds, upstream watershed, and conveyance through the site systems. 

The site's redevelopment offered a unique opportunity to reduce impervious cover and increase green space. Our approach to the project included a thorough data collection process and field survey of the existing watershed and subsurface conveyance systems. Once the existing conditions were established, we produced and modeled design scenarios that would not cause negative impacts but provide benefits to the existing watershed. Our final design proposed a significant “re-greening” of the former roughly 97-acre Cortana Mall site that included over 9.4 acres of new stormwater storage lakes, including water quality plantings in and around the green spaces and ponds along with a walking track around the ponds, all of which contributed to significant “re-greening” of a defunct urban mall to reduce flood risks and improve green spaces and water quality.