Platt-Whitelaw Architects

Thomas Brothers

Increasing Water Independence for the City of Camarillo

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Most people don’t think much about water supply beyond turning on their tap or garden hose and expecting water to come out. Behind-the-scenes, however, is far more complicated. Fortunately for many Southern Californians, we have people on staff who think about water supply a lot.

Most recently, our firm principal Naveen Waney and associate Thomas Brothers have been thinking about water for the people of Camarillo. Our firm is fortunate to have teamed with engineering lead Brown & Caldwell and their partners (all of whom designed the highly complex process work) to create the North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter Plant.

And why would Camarillo need to desalt its water, you ask? (Okay, pretend that you did.)

It’s an interesting story. Camarillo’s aquifer sits downstream from many other communities in Ventura County. As such, the salt bloom from all of that groundwater draining down to Camarillo sits under the city. Usable groundwater (i.e. water that wouldn’t taste like the ocean or rapidly kill plants) amounted to only 40% of the demand in Camarillo. The remainder had to be imported.

By creating a desalter plant, the city can use a reverse osmosis process to leach enough salt from the groundwater to significantly reduce its reliance on imported water (and not kill plants or gag its residents). The city expects to double the amount of water it can rely on from its groundwater supply with the North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter Plant.

However, the appearance of water processing equipment doesn’t always make the welcoming statement a city wants to make at its gateway. And guess what – the highly visible North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter Plant is located at the northern entrance to the City of Camarillo.

Fear not. In addition to thinking about water, Naveen and Thomas think a lot about attractive architecture. They worked with the community and its leaders to develop an architectural style that would complement the Spanish Revival buildings that are pervasive in Camarillo.

Using a style that blends traditional and more modern mission styles of architecture, our team created a design to house the plant’s engineered infrastructure, provide an attractive and welcoming gateway and even provide an educational visitor experience.

Stepping into the lobby of the plant, visitors see a window into the inner workings of the plant and have access to a large conference and education room.

The visitors and residents aren’t the only ones to benefit from this plant. California is known for its produce production, and Ventura County is a big contributor, with major crops like strawberries, citrus fruit, avocados, leafy greens and more. A reliable and affordable water supply is incredibly important for Camarillo’s farmers, too.

For Thomas, this project was personal. His in-laws own and operate a prolific produce farm in Camarillo, and Thomas even volunteers at their farmers’ market booths when they travel a little further south to market their wares. He understands the passionate and sometimes tenuous relationship between farmers and water supply and he was excited to work on this project.

The North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter Plant marked our firm’s first foray into designing pleasing facades and people spaces for reverse osmosis facilities, but it’s not our last. We’ve already found ourselves working on a similar facility in Escondido.

At this writing, we’re happy to report that parts of the North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter Plant are already occupied, and operation of the treatment equipment is initiated. We have the highest respect for the talented engineering team at Brown & Caldwell and are grateful that they included us in this project, but this effort certainly took more than just our two firms.

W.M. Lyles Co. did a great job constructing the plant, and they, along with Fleege & Associates, are also providing start-up services for the equipment. Water Systems Consulting provided construction administration services, and Separation Processes Inc. contributed its leading reverse osmosis system design skills. Inframark will operate the plant.

As Brown & Caldwell’s Project Manager Andrew Lazenby says, “This is a landmark moment for Camarillo’s long-term water future. We applaud the City’s visionary approach to reclaiming and reusing groundwater and doing so in a way that is both cost-effective for customers and beneficial to the environment.”

And in conclusion…what Andrew said.

 

Water Works: Blending Design and Function to Bring Water to Communities

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At the heart of all architectural design projects is the combination of function and design…or how to make a building design look good while serving a specific purpose. Most people don’t think much about how water arrives to their faucet, but the facilities required to make this happen account for a good portion of Platt/Whitelaw’ work over the past three decades and some of our most lauded buildings.

When working on public projects, including water- and wastewater-related projects, the design vs. function dilemma is intensified by the need for the processes housed in the project to be accommodated in an efficient and cost-effective manner while also complementing the surrounding environment. Platt/Whitelaw finds ways to resolve these demands while also working in sustainable strategies in all our water and wastewater treatment plant and water reclamation projects. Natural daylight and ventilation, as well as material choices, help reduce the impact of the buildings on the environment while also supporting wellness in the workplace.

Of utmost importance, we have to consider how the flow of the process housed in the building needs to be considered in design. We work very closely with water experts to accommodate pipes, basins, filtration systems, treatment equipment and more. The extent of these requirements can present myriad complexities and require compulsive attention to detail.

“We may have to think about unique challenges like how to take valves and tanks in and out of buildings for maintenance,” said Naveen Waney, AIA, Principal at Platt/Whitelaw Architects. “For one project, we designed large, removable skylight hatches to provide access for a crane that can pull a valve out of its receptacle nearly 20 feet into the earth.”

Whether it is a wastewater treatment, potable-water or pure-water project, additional challenges always present themselves, and each job has unique issues. For example, chemicals such as acid are needed to clean and descale equipment on some types of projects. To purify water, some projects use filters while others use a heating process to create steam before recondensing it back to liquid water, leaving any impurities behind. Architects who work on water treatment and reclamation projects must face issues that they don’t face in most other types of building design.

Fortunately, the collaboration that goes into designing and building water and wastewater facilities is robust. Typically, the civil engineer lays out the facility. That professional knows where the water comes from and where it needs to go and makes specifications about distances, bends, pipe sizes and more accordingly.

With this information, the architect is programming, space planning and problem solving, while working closely with the engineers. The architects and engineers have to be flexible, inventive and work hand-in-hand. It’s helpful to consider the water as our mutual client and design to accommodate its demands.

Naveen and Platt/Whitelaw Associate Thomas Brothers  have worked closely together on several water and wastewater projects over the course of decades. Some of our firm’s projects include Operations and Maintenance buildings at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant, Encina Wastewater Facility and South Bay Water Reclamation Facility.  Along with pump stations at Scripps Ranch and one at the new North City Pure Water Facility in University City and Chemical buildings at the Alvarado Water Treatment Plant in Mission Trails Regional Park – all in San Diego – and a Desalter Facility in Camarillo.

As with most types of architecture, the location of a project is fundamental to the architectural design. The Desalter project, for example, is industrial, located adjacent to the city of Camarillo. The challenge for Platt/Whitelaw is in making it look approachable. The Platt/Whitelaw team typically works with the city or county where the project will reside to find an aesthetic that isn’t hidden but also isn’t overwhelming for the surrounding community.  

Sometimes, the water flow itself determines the location. Due to the topographic configuration of San Diego, the Point Loma North Operations Building and Grit building our firm designed sits where wastewater flows – to a low point, in this case right at the ocean edge. After it’s treated, the water travels to an outfall location several miles into the ocean.  

An important task for our firm was to design a facility that respected the flow of the water and the process required to treat it while celebrating the remarkable location at the bluffs leading to the ocean. We accomplished this through a multi-level building design that complemented the natural topography and accommodated the water flow; with sustainable strategies that reflected the importance of the area’s natural resources; and with material and color selections that would complement the site.

Public art can also help bridge function with design and is used by Platt/Whitelaw in many of its public projects. “It’s a way of saying to a community that there is civic importance to the project,” says Thomas. “And we help celebrate that by making a space for public art.”

Thomas also points out that public art is a way to communicate the purpose of a project. “Lay people don’t typically know what the process is behind the project. An artist can present it in a way that is visually interesting while making it more accessible and sometimes educational.”

Working with water projects also allows Platt/Whitelaw to be a part of cutting-edge technology, including pure water projects, where instead of sending treated wastewater into the ocean or irrigation lines, the treatment facility can make it drinkable. It’s a process that involves making the water so pure that it’s then returned to the regular treatment facility and then sent to storage and distribution tanks for potable use.

The innovative approach lets the region take less water from natural resources (like the Colorado River), which are diminishing, while making the community more resilient to drought and other changes.

“We take pride in working on something very important for the community and knowing we are a part of it,” says Naveen.

Thomas adds, “With water and wastewater architecture, you are thrust into realizing that your design is part of a greater system.”

Teaching Future Generations of Building Professionals

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Our long history as a firm includes decades of volunteering our time to teach students and young adults about the building and design industry.

For many years, our staff was involved with B.E.E.P. (Built Environment Education Project), where we worked with school children to design imaginary projects. Topics ranged from designing animal enclosures for a zoo to masterplanning the former Naval Training Center (now Liberty Station).

More recently, many of our staff have become mentors through the ACE Mentor program, working with high school students to inspire them to pursue careers in Architecture, Construction and Engineering.

Nationwide, more than 9,000 students from 1,000 high schools annually participate in ACE, completely on a voluntary basis. In 2003, a group of local architects, engineers and general contractors founded ACE Mentor San Diego.

ACE students, who are paired with a handful of professionals in those fields, receive an invaluable, hands-on education — they learn to understand the day-to-day workings of a planning or building project by living and experiencing it.

Students who commit themselves to the ACE Mentor program may even earn scholarships from ACE. Since its inception, ACE has awarded over $15 million in scholarships to promising participants. Just last year, ACE students in San Diego collectively received $130,000 in scholarship money.

Members of our staff have volunteered through ACE at Hoover High School, San Diego High School and Eastlake High School. Each group of students and A/E/C design professionals decides what they would like to develop and then identifies the steps that would be required to bring that idea to fruition.

One of our firm’s principals, Naveen Waney, headed a group that chose a park site near their school and then designed a multi-purpose facility for training and meetings, which also featured a kitchen and gym.

Platt/Whitelaw architect Luke English led a group that also chose a site near their school and designed a center to help the homeless by providing social and employment services as well as housing.

Our firm’s Mackenzie Sims is leading a group that is choosing between their school campus or a nearby site for a student and community center and outdoor event space, while Yolanda Velazco’s group hashed out a transit mobility plan and station design as well as ideas for complementary pedestrian bridges.

Tackling challenges of land availability and iatrophobia (the fear of going to the doctor), Thomas Brothers’ group created plans for a welcoming health clinic, complete with a playground, that would sit on top of a bridge over Interstate 5.

“It’s been a lot of fun working with students,” says Mackenzie. “They bring new perspectives and ideas.”

“They don’t have limits,” adds Yolanda. “They’re super creative and think outside the box.”

Naveen, who has served as a mentor for three ACE programs and hopes to do so again in the future, says he kept coming back because “it’s so rewarding to see students’ faces light up when you tell them stories about your work.”

Luke knows the value of having extracurricular opportunities like ACE. “I was lucky – we had a vocational center at our high school. I had taken drafting courses, and it interested me in architecture.”

Thomas, who, like Naveen, had also participated with B.E.E.P., says the reward for him is in “connecting with the students, listening to their lives and seeing what they’re doing.”

“Hats off to ACE for putting together this very well-run program,” says Naveen, adding that more students need to know about it and understand that committing to a full ACE Mentor session may lead to a college scholarship from ACE.

If you are interested in volunteering with the ACE Mentor program or know a student who may want to be involved, we are happy to share more with you about our experience. You can also visit https://acementorsd.org/.