The Headworks Building at Metro Water Services Central Water Reclamation Facility

Project Statement

Once located on the edge of an industrial zone, the Metro Headworks facility now sits at the heart of a rapidly urbanizing Germantown neighborhood. Flanked by a park and new housing, the site demanded more than a utilitarian enclosure—it required architecture with civic presence. Drawing from Germantown’s heritage of brick warehouses and narrow gabled homes, the design merges industrial and residential cues. Brick grounds the base, durable metal clads the upper walls, and expansive glazing invites transparency.
That transparency is both literal and symbolic. A large glazed façade along 3rd Avenue offers curated views of the screening equipment within, softly glowing at night. Even exterior piping is exposed, transforming infrastructure into public education. Translucent panels echo the process: larger glazing at coarse screening, smaller apertures at fine, signaling treatment gradation.
This approach reflects a global shift: communities want infrastructure revealed, not hidden. In Germantown, that ethos was shaped through community engagement. Public meetings informed both building and landscape, ensuring the project respected neighborhood character while offering shared amenities:
• A public dog park
• Greenway extensions linking north and south Germantown
• Recreation areas with water features
• Two covered bus stops
• Rain gardens and native prairie plantings
The result is an activated site edge that reciprocates, giving back in form, experience, and ecology.
Sustainability was equally central. Undertaken under a federally mandated Consent Decree, the $120M effort not only optimized water treatment but advanced regenerative design. Strategies include:
• 1 MW of on-site solar power
• Adaptive reuse of existing infrastructure
• Replacement of 10 acres of asphalt with native meadows
• Invasive species eradication and habitat restoration
• Durable, low-maintenance materials for resilience
Operationally, the facility can manage up to 440 million gallons per day, with flexible weir gates that adapt to wet or dry conditions. It produces not only clean water for the Cumberland River but reusable fertilizer, closing the resource loop.
Architecturally, the facility blends into the neighborhood while projecting openness and honesty. Gabled rooflines recall nearby homes; layered materials express durability and clarity; glass façades embody transparency.
The Metro Headworks facility redefines civic infrastructure: beautiful, functional, and engaged. It demonstrates how engineering and architecture can merge to create a community landmark—one that sustains urban life while enriching the public realm.

Framework for Design Excellence Narrative

**Ecosystems**

The Central Water Reclamation Facility is a success for the need it meets in the community as well as the environmental benefits it provides.  The facility recycles wastewater to produce not only clean water that is safely returned to the Cumberland River but also reusable fertilizer.

The facility reused existing infrastructure to save money, energy, and reduce waste to landfill.  Additionally, 1MW of solar was installed at the plant.

 

 

 

 

**Water**

The improvements to the existing Central Waste Water Treatment plant provide higher quality treatment to protect and improve the environment with more reliability, greater efficiency and additional capacity which will reduce overflows in the collection system.  Simultaneously, this facility provides public space and a new face to the neighborhood.

The project removed 10 acres of asphalt and turf grass to plant native grasses, whose deep roots aide in stormwater management, across the entire campus and removed invasive plants at the facility.

The new facility is the largest water reclamation facility in the southeast and is capable of treating approximately 440 MGD.

 

**Integration**

•Building design seeks to provide transparency to the community by providing visibility in and education to the public of what happens inside. The large, glassy wall facing the neighborhood across the street, allows glimpses to the equipment inside, a radiant glow at night with a design inspired by the actual course and fine screen equipment inside.   

•The community vocalized preferences for the building design along with some longstanding needs that were met with this project, such as the dog park, greenway extension, recreation area/water features, 2 new covered bus stops, and a native prairie/rain gardens.

•The building is inspired by the gabled roof structure of surrounding single-family homes in the neighborhood, as well as the metal of utility and infrastructure campuses.

•The outdoor exposed piping between the two buildings is visible to build curiosity and engagement between the members of the city and this impressive piece of infrastructure that cleans its water.