Croton Water Treatment Plant
The Croton Water Treatment Plant, currently under construction and located underground in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx is designed to be a state-of-the-art water treatment facility that will filter a significant portion of New York City’s drinking water from upstate reservoirs. At a cost of over $3B, this is NYC’s largest infrastructure project. The extremely large roof surface and excavation depth of the plant create significant excesses of storm and ground water. GEE’s ecologists and designers collaborated with a multidisciplinary team to devise a water management system that treats this excess water on site while using it as an educational and ecological amenity. The team is designing the U.S.’s largest living roof system (over 9 acres) and a complicated wetland treatment system.
Water will flow through a series of treatment wetland cells that include different habitat types such as emergent marshes planted with native sedges, rushes, and associated wetland species. Shaded areas of the site, created by site security walls and buildings, will host rocky glen habitat features with boulders, ferns, and mosses. These areas will serve to lower temperature and increase dissolved oxygen in the water. After flowing through a series of wetland cells, the water will be held in a large reservoir planted with aquatic species and featuring a blueberry-alder floodplain. Ultimately the water will be used for irrigation of the adjacent golf course.
Project Details:
Year: 2007 – Present
Acreage: 74 acres
Client: Hazen and Sawyer Environmental Engineers and Scientists; NYC Department of Environmental Protection
Architect: Grimshaw Architects
Landscape Architect: Ken Smith Landscape Architect
Location: Bronx, NY
