Center for Urban Waters

The Center for Urban Waters is located in Tacoma Washington just off of the Thea Foss Waterway.  As its name suggests, the Center for Urban Waters has a lot to do with urban water, specifically tackling the problems of water pollution in urban areas. Both public and private groups will work in the Center for Urban Waters laboratories testing water and air quality and working to revitalize both the Puget Sound and an economically depressed area of Tacoma.

Instead of making the Center for Urban Waters a dry and boring brick cube, the city of Tacoma decided to pursue both avant-garde architecture and the cutting edge of sustainability. Built by Perkins+Will a variety of sustainable techniques were used to keep the three story Center for Urban Waters as green as possible. The Center for Urban Waters uses 46% less water and 36% less energy than current Washington State building requirements.

Despite the fact that the Center for Urban Waters works to improve water quality in a lab setting, many lab requirements work against sustainable architecture. Labs require large amounts of energy to filter outside air as well as requiring light that typical green building windows may not provide. All members of the team began planning early to overcome the special challenges of working to build sustainable laboratories.

Other sustainable features include shades that automatically adjust to heat or cool the building depending upon the amount of current sunlight. A geoexchange loop works to keep the building temperature moderate without the energy waste of typical heating techniques. Industrial fans and windows facing the water allow hard working researchers a breath of fresh air. Energy and water usage are displayed on monitors placed in the lobby, keeping the sustainability of the project available in real time.

Perhaps the most important sustainable feature in a Center for Urban Water is the reuse of both clean reject water and storm water run-off. A 12,000 square foot green roof works to absorb storm water run-off while a smaller green roof monitors the progress of the larger roof. The data collected by the smaller roof will be used by the City of Tacoma. A rain garden works to clean storm water run-off. Storm water run-off is the number one water pollution problem in the Puget Sound area. Rainwater and clean water rejects are collected in above ground cisterns to be reused in toilets and drought proof landscaping.

The many sustainable features have enabled the Center for Urban Waters to become a candidate for LEED Platinum Certification, the highest level of third party sustainability certification.