DC Water Headquarters

The new LEED Platinum headquarters for the District of Columbia’s sewer and water utility, demonstrates that modern civic architecture can be both beautiful and functional in its pursuit of sustainable building practices (View images at DC Water Headquarters | SmithGroup.) The project presented numerous challenges—environmental and site constraints that included raising the site to one foot above the 500-year flood plain, a pre-set budget, security measures, and critical infrastructure that had to remain operational during construction and beyond.

The team turned each challenge into an opportunity to produce a distinctive, elegant building that advances sustainable best practices, provides the highest quality office environment, and serves as a new architectural nexus for the neighborhood. What was once an unsightly industrial area is now a showcase of innovation for the utility; a ground floor public exhibition space outlines the building and site’s sustainable and resilience elements, as well as the utility’s operations.

The project also exemplifies technological innovation through its use of a groundbreaking wastewater thermal recovery system—used here for the first time in a U.S. office building—to capture heat from the flowing wastewater in winter, while using it as a heat sink in summer. The device transfers heat between the wastewater piping and a separate clean-water loop that runs to a heat-recovery chiller in the building. The system reduces energy use for heating and cooling by 48%.

The building ’s sinuous form and layered skin are carefully shaped by the opportunities and constraints of the site and are also informed by computational analytics. The building ’s north side features punched windows in green cladding recalling the historic use of copper in water transmission. The south façade glass curtainwall accommodates views and daylighting. Stepped in areas create shading and a second layer of tinted glass in specific areas reduce heat loads and glare as determined by computational modeling. Only 40% of the exterior is glazed.

The project transforms an operational water and sewage treatment facility into the innovative new face of the utility and returns the landscape to a functioning ecosystem. In turn, the building has become an icon on Washington’s Anacostia Riverfront, while serving as a catalyst for economic development.