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Detail of the riverfront façade, showing the additional layers of glass Educational displays along the boardwalk.
that reduce heat gain on the interior of the building.

seemingly oblivious to its waterfront location, and it had “What made this project so exciting for us at the outset was its
to remain operational and accessible during and after the idiosyncratic requirements,” said lead designer Sven Shockey,
construction of the headquarters facility. An additional major AIA, LEED AP BD+C. “We had never seen a project with these
constraint was a network of massive clay sewer lines dating particular constraints, but we had worked on [projects with]
back more than 100 years that runs under the site, handling complex existing conditions, industry-leading sustainable
more than two-thirds of all sanitary sewage and stormwater projects, and iconic projects. The fact that this project needed all
collected in the DC Water service area. This, too, could not be three attributes was unique. Since we’re a discipline-integrated
disturbed. A third constraint was the project’s budget, which firm—with architecture, mechanical-electrical-plumbing [MEP],
“was modest, considering the complexities of the site, reflecting and lighting [experts] in house—we appreciate projects that
DC Water’s goal of having the project pay for itself [over time] require finding synergies between disciplines.”
through savings from the consolidation of multiple facilities,” “As a team,” he added, “we brainstormed about what a
SmithGroup said. synergistic resolution of the constraints might look like, and
The site’s principal advantage was its waterfront location, each discipline then went to work looking for innovative ways
which presented an opportunity to design a building that to overcome the challenges. Every discipline contributed
could offer plenty of interior daylighting and stunning river innovative ideas to the project in a unified, focused way that
views while breaking free of the boxy shape imposed on office makes the building totally unique.”
buildings in Washington’s downtown street grid. Surprisingly, The building’s flowing shape evokes both water in general
the existing underground network of waste-water tunnels, and the bends of the Anacostia River, while its exterior
while posing structural challenges for the new building, aluminum panels, painted in varied shades of green, bring to
simultaneously offered a second advantage: a non-stop flow mind the colors of patinated copper water piping.
of waste water, heat from which could be harvested via a While the building’s form “may appear to be a purely
sanitary wastewater energy exchange system (SWEE)—a type of sculptural exercise,” the firm said, it “actually reflects a
ground-source heat pump—that could significantly reduce the pragmatic response to the unique constraints of the site.”
building’s heating and cooling costs. Dayton Schroeter, AIA, the project designer, put it more
succinctly: “The design was a rational response to an irrational site.”
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