Dawntown 2008 Competition- Waterworks Dawntown 2008 was an architectural ideas competition for a new waterworks building in downtown Miami. It called for the redesign of an existing 1950s era pump station at the edge of waterfront Bicentennial Park into a public icon reflecting the new downtown. The following is a narrative of our design morphology: A small pump station may appear insignificant in comparison to an overall waste water network. However, something small can be transformed into an edifice that stands tall and acts as a Center for environmental awareness, education, and reflection. The central and most prominent design element of the Waterworks building is a cube built of aqua tinted structural glass. This simple yet elegant cube symbolically embodies water's ethereal quality and the future goal for an unpolluted environment. A spacious and transparent form, the central cube acts as a new enclosure for the pump room and an atrium for the building. The overall building form surrounding the atrium is anchored by a three story glass lobby and elevator tower. The west facing glazing along Biscayne Boulevard allows visibility through to the atrium, exposing a pump room with mechanical equipment. Adjacent to the lobby is a 116' elevator tower with a scale inherent to civic icons. The building's concrete post-tensioned structure ascends from the lobby up to the second floor. Irregular geometries of the building enclosure wrap and bend around the atrium, ultimately culminating at a viewing area at the building's Northeast corner. Large expanses of glazing in this space deliver breath-taking views of the new Museum Park. At the base of the Waterworks building, the service area is bridged and covered with more park landscape, raising the grade and allowing pedestrian access. A green roof provides heat mitigation and rainwater collection. Grey water is piped to a cistern inside the elevator tower. Power generation is achieved with the use of a series of aeroelastic wind harvesting masts. Catching the predominant sea breeze, 100% of energy demand is met. The atrium, which is only open to the pump room, utilizes the cool easterly sea breeze for wind effect natural ventilation.
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