Brightwater Influent Pump Station

Infrastructure as Amenity

Brightwater Influent Pump Station at Portal 41

Bothell, WA

Revealing Hidden Flows

The Brightwater Influent Pump Station (IPS) is a celebration of infrastructure through rhythm, pattern and form. Simple buildings of concrete, metal and glass expose glimpses of activity while screening the influent that flows underground.

Transparency and Efficiency

The IPS optimizes sewage flows to Brightwater Wastewater Treatment Plant and manages the return of treated effluent to Puget Sound. The campus is designed with extensive glazing to maximize daylighting, provide transparency to the street and simplify maintenance.

Resource Stewardship

Sited along an arterial at the entrance to an office park, the IPS is set back to create pedestrian pathways skirting a constructed wetland and a boardwalk that extends across the landscape. The 65-foot tall odor control stack is enclosed by VERDI, an art installation comprised of more than 3,500 repurposed glass bottles – a visual statement about the consumption of bottled water and volume of liquid treated at Brightwater.

Client

King County Wastewater Treatment Division

Overview

New industrial facility that manages influent flows to the Brightwater wastewater treatment plant, while blending in with neighboring office buildings in the Bothell Business Park

Program

Generator building, pump station, influent and effluent control structures, public park area, boardwalk and constructed wetlands

Size

60,000 sf; 1.7 acres

Completion Date

2011

Services

Architecture

Collaborators

CH2M Hill and Brown and Caldwell, engineer; Hargreaves Associates, landscape architect

Awards

AIA Washington Civic Design Awards, Citation, 2013

The Influent Pump Station is located at the entrance to the Bothell Business Park. The facility has exceeded expectations for appearance and odor control, while meeting the needs of an industrial facility.

Sculptor Christian Moeller created “Verdi” using more than 3,500 repurposed water bottles to call attention to the pump station’s part in the treatment of large quantities of wastewater to be used or returned to the environment.

Maintenance corridors and access areas on the ground floor are opportunities to share color with the public, while providing views to nature and a continuous circulation path for the workers on site.

Motor rooms and pump rooms deep underground direct wastewater to the Brightwater Treatment Plant.

Pulleys in the Emergency Generator Building allow for access and movement of the equipment.

Extensive daylighting in the Emergency Generator Building allows for maintenance and testing without the need for artificial lighting and gives glimpses to reveal the buildings function.

Building circulation elements are housed in glass to allow daylight and views to nature.

Infrastructure as Amenity

Brightwater Influent Pump Station at Portal 41