Barn-Like Design Ends Building Moratorium

Making it look like a barn made a sewage pumping station more welcome on a special property and ended a building moratorium in Springettsbury Township, Pennsylvania.

Pumping stations tend to be box buildings made of concrete blocks -- the kind of structure that would not fit into the road frontage of a beautifully fenced suburban horse farm. So when engineers for Buchart-Horn, Inc. designed a large new pumping facility, their vision included details to create the image of a horse barn.

Faced with red brick, the structure features a peak roof that mimics the pitch of a stable roof. Engineers also specified plastic panels that look like stable doors. A fuel tank for an emergency generator, large dome fans, an outside stairway to a wet well and other outside equipment were hidden behind a white plastic fence.

"The idea was to make it as attractive as possible without driving up the cost for the client," said Mike Schober, Buchart-Horn's Assistant Director of Environmental Engineering. "These design details didn't make a big difference in the bottom line, but they made all the difference to the neighborhood."

Successful placement of the pumping station on the horse farm permitted Springettsbury Township to lift a building moratorium that had been imposed in that area when an old pumping station was unable to accommodate development.