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Palomar Hospital almost finished
Through close collaboration with the landscape architect, green roof consultant, mechanical engineers, structural engineers, and steel fabricator, this roof is an example of the thorough integration of architecture, landscape, systems, and program, and the ultimate integration of nature and technology.
“At [Bucknum's] urging, the design team began to look at the green roof playing a functional healing role in treating on-site wastewater. “This would address the water use issue head-on. The team completed a preliminary design to treat cooling tower water with a wetland on the roof to reduce alkalinity, and then use the treated water to irrigate the on-grade gardens,” said Spurlock.
Mr Spurlock added: “Statistics show a substantial amount of potable water is used as make-up water in cooling towers. Palomar West Hospital is expected to generate approximately 5 million gallons of wastewater from the cooling towers, which would normally be disposed of as in the municipal sewer system. A great opportunity exists to offset this wastewater consumption and reuse it for landscape irrigation. However, the blow down water from the cooling tower contains high concentrations of dissolved salts due to evaporation of the makeup water by the cooling tower system. Salt concentration can be harmful to many plants and irrigation systems.
“Through close collaboration, the team first designed a closed-loop ecological water treatment system for the cooling tower water. Instead of sending wastewater to the municipal sewer system, the blow down water from cooling tower would be sent to the 60,000 sf extensive green roof over the D&T wing to support a diverse wetland planting community. The 1.5 acre green roof could treat the total 5 million gallons per year. Using principles of biofiltration and nutrient recycling, this roof would in turn remove the salt from wastewater through natural processes and return the water to the ground level for irrigation. With Rana Creek’s ability to calculate the approximate level of treatment with this process, the feasibility study demonstrated substantial savings in water use that would offset nearly 60 percent of the need for potable water for irrigation and would save the hospital significant water and sewer fees.”
Link to Article
The Chron ways in on the toilet talks…
It’s time to raise a stink over public toilets C.W. Nevius, Chronicle ColumnistSaturday, December 10, 2011
(P.S. We’re having another charrette next week, let us know if you want to come toilet@hyphae.net)
Best of the East Bay
Best Hybrid Design Firm
Hyphae Design Lab
The East Bay is home to many a green-minded business, but perhaps none quite like West Oakland’s Hyphae Design Lab. The five-member firm’s tagline — “bridging the gap between architecture and biology” — is intriguing enough, but takes on added meaning when you see what these folks can do. Impeccable design and engineering skills, a penchant for innovation and problem-solving, and a deep-rooted dedication to long-term sustainability inform much of their work — like the 2,500-gallon rainwater collection tank they helped design for a customer in the Berkeley hills last year. It was Berkeley’s first-ever permitted rainwater system designed for indoor use, but just another highlight for Hyphae’s portfolio. More recently, the firm has taken the lead in developing an innovative series of curbside swales designed to capture and filter storm-water runoff in West Oakland. All in a day’s work, it seems.
East Bay Express
Presentation @ GoodSF
You can see the individual chapters here:
16.Dan Hodapp: Port of San Francisco
17.Brent Bucknum: Green Infrastructure on the Industrial Waterfront
18.Park-A-Peel (A Park at Port of SF)
20.Q&A: Dan & Brent (Port of San Francisco & Hyphae Design)
Who knew engineers could be animated?
Hyphae designers quickly looked beyond the 2.5 acres, realizing the entire pier could be an opportunity to do what they like most to do: “designing a green infrastructure for sites that are contaminating the most.”
Anyone who’s read the signs along San Francisco’s waterfront warning fishermen not to consume much, if any, of their catch knows that the old piers hover above a century-and-a-half of toxic industrial deposits and other crud. Not to worry, Hyphae’s Park A-Peel plan that would create a wind-calming landscaped bowl for public use at the end of the pier would also tackle “remediation on a Bay scale” by floating plant-filled waste-treatment barges beside the pier to clean up runoff from the parking lot and creating a water-filtering oyster and mussel habitat below. Redirecting truck traffic flow would allow year-round public access to the park.
Bucknum’s enthusiasm for creating a working pier/public park that would actually clean up after itself was infectious in a crowd used to questioning conventional thinking and reconfiguring design parameters. As for city fathers and nearby Telegraph Hill dwellers, I imagine the proposed hot tubs might prove too much of “a hangout,” and Hodapp seemed skeptical that money would be found for all the bells and whistles Bucknum described.
So don’t be surprised if the America’s Cup boats are viewed by a few hundred people lucky enough to score a pass to the still wind-blasted end of Pier 27 — that is, if their access isn’t cut off by trucks delivering supplies to a cruise ship docked at the pier.”
–Lynette Evans
http://blog.afriendlyhouse.com/2011/10/05/architecture-and-the-city-winds-up.aspx
Hyphae’s Port Team @ at the Swissnex Party
