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Water Purification Plant and Park by Steven Holl and Michael Van ValkenburghBefore Hurricane Katrina focused the world's attention on the hydro-engineering of levees in New Orleans-architects , engineers, and policymakers fretted about how to get the public more interested in the unsexy problem of maintaining our nation's infrastructure.
Taxpayers aren't eager to pay for water or sewer treatment plants, perhaps because these facilities are largely invisible, unless they're being built across the street, in which case a cry of "not in my backyard" predictably arises.
Which is what makes the Whitney Water Purification Facility and Park in Hamden, Connecticut, such a pleasant surprise.
Facing a NIMBY battle in the neighborhood, the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority responded with a sophisticated design by Steven Holl Architects and landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates that doesn't just placate the neighbors by mimicking their 1920s center-hall colonials or covering the plant with vines (at least not all of it).
With the blessing of the community, Holl and Van Valkenburgh produced a distinctive building and landscape that celebrate the purification process and seek to teach the public about water and where it comes from.
The plant, dedicated in September, is built on the 14-acre site of a 1906 facility that treated water from nearby Lake
more: www.architecturemag.com/architect... (1,078)
October 25, 2005 | Viewed 35,268 time(s)
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