Home Farm Water Treatment Plant

Shrewsbury, MA

The Town of Shrewsbury had an existing water filtration building, but needed a new filtration process to manage and treat the manganese in the raw water. GRLA designed a new building to house the process equipment for the 7.0 mgd facility that utilizes the Mangazur technology, an environmentally friendly biological process to remove the manganese. The design capacity of this facility makes it the largest in the northeast and second largest in the US at the time of construction.    

The 14,000 SF facility is constructed of reinforced CMU with veneer of ground faced masonry units with accents throughout. Knock out panels were designed into the wall system to allow for future replacement of equipment. Daylighting of the interior was important so Kalwall panels were incorporated in select locations in the upper section of the wall on all elevations to diffuse natural light into the space. The gable walls are ribbed insulated metal panels. A standing seam metal roof was selected for the low maintenance and long life. The cupolas are not only design elements but are a functional part of the HVAC system. 

The site also had a ground mounted solar array installed at the demolished filtration buildings location to offset the electrical costs of the treatment plant.