Kappe+Du Architects: San Francisco Bay Area Architecture


*Uniquely Educational By Design* We designed this $12 million water treatment facility project, sited in a residential community with a park immediately adjacent and a school nearby, with the surrounding community at the plan's core. We sought to make an important public educational tool out of this 83,000 square foot complex.
*Key Project Considerations*

	+	Take what could be considered a dauntingly large industrial project and transform it into an open, dynamic dialogue between the facility and its users

*Project Successes Achieved Through Design*

	+	A major element of the design intent was for the school children and the people of the community passing by to gain a quick, fundamental understanding of how their water system works and how it is integrated into their lives

	+	The design therefore included graphic communication panels alongside the exterior of the building, color-coded to correspond with tanks, machinery and other processing elements within the facility to illustrate how the water treatment process takes place

	+	The exterior of the complex was glazed so the community would have a transparent view of the process within the building, and this community educational component was continued within the building