Steven Holl’s Whitney Water Purification Plant

06 Jul 2009

Stephen Holl’s Whitney Water Treatment Plant located in New Haven, CT is well known for its unique design. This water treatment plant is in the form of an inverted water droplet.

Being one of the favorite projects of AIA/COTE, they listed the project as one of the Top Ten Green Project in 2007. The project is futuristic in many aspects but the one fact that stands-out from all of them; this 30,000 square feet water treatment facility is sitting under the largest green roof in the state of Connecticut.

The outer structure of this building is made of stainless steel shingles. The shingles, due to its properties of absorbing and reflecting the heat from the sun, prevent the building from heating up. In addition to this the buildings shape (inverse droplet) reduces the area exposed to the sun further helping in reducing the heat.

This long stainless steel building houses the extensive operational facilities required for the plant, a lecture hall, an exhibition lobby and a laboratories. Various educational programs are conducted in time to time about features and functionality of the project. The conference room located inside is used for educational programs and other official internal meetings.

The green things that made this structure make it one among the Top Ten Green projects 2007 are the roof garden (largest in that area), the thin profile for the building which allows natural daylight to enter building freely. In addition to these the domed skylights in the green roofs allow daylight to enter the water treatment plant directly and allowing the visitors to have a clear visibility of process that are running inside the facility.

The building fully features recyclable materials such as terrazzo tiles, cork tile flooring, low VOC paints and sealants. Above all the stainless steel shingles used in façade are recyclable and reusable.

The main feature of this facility is the way how the water is treated in facility below. The plant is divided into six functional areas by which the water is treated. The ozonation bubbling area of the plant is situated just below the domed skylights mentioned above.

This building not only treats the water but also conserves it, as it integrates storm water drainage system preventing it from running off. The entire facility featuring education, architecture and landscaping makes this as one unique noticeable building.

Source: Inhabitat.com, AIA, Worldarchitecturenews.com

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