Current pumping station site to become home of green building heated and cooled with advanced wastewater technology
Skanska USA will build a sustainable and innovative 150,000-square-foot headquarters facility for the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water).
The new building will feature a wastewater thermal system, the first use of this technology in the US, which will allow DC Water to utilize the city’s wastewater as a source of thermal energy to condition the building. It will be located on the site of the existing O Street Pump Station along the waterfront of the Anacostia River in Southeast DC.
“Wastewater thermal is just one of the many innovative ways this project will make our operations more efficient and sustainable,” said DC Water CEO, George Hawkins. “Consolidating our administrative offices will leverage funds that otherwise would have been spent to lease space and expand existing facilities. It will also preserve vital land at the Blue Plains treatment plant for future process improvements.”
The six-story headquarters will feature a fluid architectural shape that will wrap around the existing O Street Pump Station, allowing full access to the station. Solar heat gain and glare will be reduced through a unique stepping of the floors while a series of tinted green glass sun screens hung from the façade will provide additional control over daylighting. A curving façade alleviates over-abundant daylight, while also responding to the bending frontage of the Anacostia River.
“DC Water had very clear goals with this project: create a new headquarters building that makes use of existing DC Water facilities; meets the need for expanded space; effectively serves its customers; and applies as many environmentally sustainable construction features as possible,” said Steve Skinner, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Skanska USA Building in Washington, DC.
The bold and distinctive design of DC Water’s headquarters was developed collaboratively by Skanska and its architectural design partner, SmithGroupJJR. In addition to architectural design, SmithGroupJJRis providing MEP engineering, and sustainable design services. Other key design team members include Leuterio Thomas (Oxon Hill, Maryland); JVP Engineers, P.C. (Washington, DC); SK&A Engineers, PLLC (Washington, DC); Wiles Mensch Corporation (Washington, DC); and Oehme van Sweden (Washington, DC).
“Sustainability has sculpted the building inside and out,” said Sven Shockey, design principal at SmithGroupJJR’s Washington, DC office. “The headquarters will employ new building technologies not yet seen in the United States which will contribute to it being one of the most unusual and lowest energy office buildings in the region.”
The building is designed to achieve LEED® Platinum certification, but also employs many advanced strategies that are expected to exponentially surpass LEED® certification. Construction of the headquarters is scheduled to be complete in December 2017.
Skanska is also working with DC Water on the First Street Tunnel to alleviate flooding in the Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park neighborhoods through the construction of a 20-foot diameter, 2,700-foot tunnel that can hold up to 8 million gallons of rainwater.
Skanska USA is one of the largest, most financially sound construction and development companies in the U.S., serving a broad range of clients including those in transportation, power, industrial, water/wastewater, healthcare, education, sports, data centers, life sciences, aviation and commercial. Headquartered in New York with offices in 31 metro areas, we have nearly 11,000 employees committed to being leaders in safety, project execution, sustainability, ethics and people development. In 2015, our work in building construction, civil and power/industrial construction, commercial development and infrastructure development (public-private partnerships) generated $7.1 billion in revenue. Global revenue of parent company Skanska AB, headquartered in Stockholm and listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange, totaled $18.4 billion in 2015. Skanska shares are publicly traded in the U.S. on the OTC market under the symbol SKBSY through a Level I American Depository Receipt program.
SmithGroupJJR (www.smithgroupjjr.com) is a recognized, integrated architecture, engineering and planning firm ranked Top 10 in the U.S. by Building Design + Construction magazine. The firm’s nationally recognizedWorkplace Practice has completed the planning and design of more than 25 million-square-feet of corporate, government, institutional and private development projects related to workplace environments and urban development. Other headquarters buildings recently completed by the firm include DPR Construction Regional Headquarters, Phoenix, and American Red Cross Bay Area Headquarters, San Francisco. With 148 LEED certified projects, SmithGroupJJR is a leader in sustainable design. The Brock Environmental Center, designed for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, recently became one of the world’s greenest buildings achieving Living Building Challenge (LBC) certification.
