The Croton plant, in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, will treat 290 million gallons of water a day — up to 30% of the city’s needs.

Grimshaw said the design’s concept was influenced by the water lily: ‘A water lily catches rainwater as it falls, filters it for its own use, and returns the excess to the pond below.(…) The plant replicates this process as closely as possible.’

From the architects:

‘Fresh water supply is one of the most pressing environmental issues facing the world today. Only 3% of the earth’s water is fresh and only a small part of this is available to man. In the U.S. alone, 3,700 billion more gallons of water per year are extracted than are returned to natural water systems, creating an annual water deficit. In rural America, aquifers provide 99% of all drinking water and the average age of water in those aquifers is 1,600 years. As the water level in these aquifers drops year after year, water is becoming one of our most precious and endangered resources. Enjoying centuries of abundant water supply, Americans are largely unaware of the potential environmental crisis facing future generations.

The new Croton Water Filtration plant, currently under construction, is located in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx and is the city’s first water filtration facility. The project entails a great number of sustainable practices on both a civic scale and a highly specific technical level.

The three core drivers for Grimshaw’s design of the above-ground structures and landscape of the Croton project were:

*Artistic and creative integration of buildings and the landscape

*Create amenity for recreation and education

*Demonstrate sustainable design through the best practices of storm water management and site design

The plant is an integral part of the city’s infrastructure, designed to treat and deliver 290m gallons of water per day – up to 30% of the city’s water supply. Through this project, the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Parks and Recreation have partnered in the interest of creating a global landmark: a complex, publicly funded civic infrastructure project, which demonstrates cutting edge environmental strategies in landscape, building design, and storm water management.

The project’s fundamental premise, water, has led the design team to use it as the generating principle for above-ground security, landscape, and building design. The project’s overall concept is influenced by nature – specifically the water lily, which catches rainwater as it falls, filters it for its own use, and returns the excess into the pond below. In replicating this process as closely as possible, we have achieved a truly sustainable and low-impact system for storm and site water management.

The above grade structures at Croton use water to inform site planning and building design strategies. Ground water is collected and redistributed through a system which functions largely by gravity. Throughout the site, the use of swales and moats to direct water into collection and filtering locations creates required security boundaries and eliminates the need for unsightly fencing.

The project also includes habitat enhancement on a large scale. To develop the range of habitat types which would be most effective for ecological enhancement, Great Ecology Environments and Rana Creek Living Architecture investigated the surrounding plant communities in Van Cortlandt Park and studied the storm water wetland system of the Staten Island Blue Belt. The ability of each potential habitat to aid in the treatment of storm water was then investigated in terms of its appropriateness for the site, taking into account program, security, aesthetics, and topography.

Through this complex hydrological storm water system, the design team will achieve the following goals:

*Significantly reduce the use of potable water for irrigation

*Significantly reduce the use of potable water for non potable uses

*Naturally treat ground and storm water through constructed wetlands and bio-swales

*Significantly reduce all groundwater and storm water discharge into the city combined sewer through site reuse, including golf course and driving range irrigation, grey water uses, wetland recharge, and building maintenance

Recreational components include a clubhouse for a 9-hole public golf course, driving range tee boxes and a civic space for use by the surrounding community. The club house and tee box are discreet structures which are fully integrated into the surrounding landscape, using locally sourced natural materials to convey a respect for the park.’

Client: New York Department of Environmental Protection / New York Department of Parks and Recreation

Completion: 2012

For more visit: www.grimshaw-architects.com.