Walnut Creek Pumping Station

Project: Walnut Creek Pumping Station

Architect: John Carl Warnecke & Associates

Photographers: Karl H. Riek, R.L. Copeland

Date Completed: 1959

The Walnut Creek Pumping Plant for East Bay Municipal Utility District is a simple shelter of steel and glass. Since the building is located in an area that will become increasingly residential, the owner required a well-designed structure, clean and precise in detail. At the same time, it is the owner’s policy that all utility plants be kept open to the public for inspection and visits and a plant was desired that would favorable and visually demonstrate the public service rendered by the EBMUD.

The building has only one story above ground. Pumps and equipment are located in an open pit. Noise is partially muffled between the concrete walls of the depressed area and partially by the acoustical treatment of the ceiling. The public may view the machinery gauges and meters from galleries and a control room on the ground level.

A special crane was installed, supported on a bent that travels on tracks along the equipment pit, and is entirely free of the structure. This freed the upper structure from vibration and movement that it was possible to enclose the building in glass from base spandrel to ceiling.

The spare structure of graceful steel bents and its transparent enclosure recessed under the wide overhang, provide a functional shelter with an unobstructed view of its interior. At night the shady space of the day is transformed into a brightly lit enclosure clearly defined by its structure.