Burbank Water and Power Eco-Campus
Burbank, California, U.S.A.
Though the Burbank Water and Power (BWP) facility had been providing Burbank, California, with water and electricity for more than 100 years, its facilities were failing its employees and the environment. The operating costs associated with maintaining the aging campus were also high, resulting in increased utility rates for residents. Additionally, the campus was lacking green space, and basic ADA requirements were not met.
Photo: AHBE Landscape Architects
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Many of the facilities on the 23-acre campus were built in the 1940s and were no longer useful to the power plant. As existing infrastructure became obsolete, BWP saw an opportunity to repurpose on-site materials to protect California’s scarce water and electricity supplies while providing employees with a more productive work environment.
Photo: AHBE Landscape Architects
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The challenge was to design and build the sustainable campus at a working utility mostly covered in impervious surfaces with no existing vegetation.
Photo: AHBE Landscape Architects
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BWP’s new Eco-Campus transformed the utility's unwelcoming plant into a green campus for its employees in 2011. The 3.2-acre campus sits within a functioning electric power station surrounded by other industrial facilities.
Photo: AHBE Landscape Architects
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Landscape architects with AHBE created a green street to showcase stormwater treatment within a public right-of-way, including permeable pavers, bio-filters, filtration planters, and silva cells, which is a structural system filled with soil that supports large tree growth and allows for stormwater filtration.
Photo: Fuscoe Engineering
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Three green roofs and the installation of LED lighting throughout the site have saved BWP thousands of dollars in energy costs.
Photo: AHBE Landscape Architects
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BWP implemented five different water filtration technologies, including infiltration, flow-through, detention, tree root cells, and rainwater capture. The power plant itself is now the first in the world to run on 100 percent recycled water.
Photo: Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), photo by Heliophoto-135
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The project’s iconic feature is the Centennial Courtyard, a green meeting area in a decommissioned electrical substation. The structure was saved from the junkyard and acts as a giant trellis, creating an interesting juxtaposition of industry and nature.
Photo: Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), photo by Heliophoto-135
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Other sustainable features on the campus include a canal that uses plants to treat stormwater, a solar-powered fountain pump, and salvaged concrete and gravel pathways and site furniture.
Photo: AHBE Landscape Architects
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The project creates a sense of community among BWP employees, offering relaxing gathering spaces for mental restoration and social interaction in a working utility. Re-purposing industrial structures creates new opportunities while preserving the history of this power-generating landscape.
Photo: Sustainble SITES intiatives (Photo by Heliophoto-135)
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Project Facts
- The 3.2-acre sustainable campus landscape for employees of Burbank Water and Power (BWP) sits within a functioning electric power station surrounded by industrial facilities.
- In 2000, the company’s rates were among the top three highest in a group of local municipal and investor-owned utilities. Since the environmentally sustainable re-design, which reduced operating costs, BWP now boasts some of the lowest rates for utilities in the area.
- Pieces of an electric substation were saved from the junkyard and transformed into a covered meeting area and giant trellis.
- The campus features one of the longest green streets in Southern California, which showcases techniques for stormwater treatment within a public right-of-way, including permeable pavers, manufactured bio-filters, filtration planters, silva cells, and infiltration planters.
- Three green roofs save the facility over $14,000 annually in energy costs.
- An innovative recycled water treatment system reduced BWP's use of potable water by as much as 100,000 gallons a day.
- It is the only power plant in the world to operate on 100 percent recycled water.
- The new campus has three LEED Platinum buildings.
PROJECT TYPE
- Urban
- Greyfield
- Campus
- Street
Environmental Benefits
- Ecologically Manages Stormwater
- Solar Powered
- Reduces Urban Heat
- Reuses Materials
Links
- Burbank Boasts State's First Sustainable Utility Campus (NBC 4 Southern California)
- Burbank Water and Power EcoCampus (Sustainable Site Initiative)
- Burbank Water and Power Project Sheet (AHBE)
- The City of Burbank - Burbank Water and Power EcoCampus (League of California Cities)
- Video about the BWP Campus by AHBE (Vimeo)
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