Tsunami Shelter

The Vertical Water Treatment Facility (VWTF)

It was a beautiful morning in Alameda, California when the earthquake struck.  The ground shook for three terrifying minutes.  The shaken residents thought the worst was over until the tsunami sirens began blaring.  The residents of the western part of the island city made their way to the Vertical Water Treatment Facility near the Alameda Belt Line.  Easily visible and distinctive in the local skyline, the VWTF had been designated a tsunami shelter when it was constructed.  Within half an hour hundreds of people had filled the upper floors of the VWTF before a wave of water swept over the island.  The water level rose to cover the first two floors of the VWTF but the people who had gone there for shelter were safe on the upper floors.

After the recent events in Japan, tsunami shelter design is getting another look. At my school (Cal Poly Pomona) the departments of civil engineering and architecture came together to have a combined class to design precast concrete tsunami shelters useable along the west coast of the United States.  The shelters had to have an everyday function as well since the tsunami shelter function would only be needed about once every hundred years.  After ten weeks of work, the final four designs were presented to a panel of architects and engineers working in industry to judge. 

The VWTF was my team’s design. Water is treated in a Living Machine process and the building is part of the local city’s water system.  The upper two floors are open space and benches for public use.  The slender fin like shape is to reduce the tsunami forces acting on the structure.

Tired architecture student is tired.

The Hanger Pod

Another view of the hanger pod

The Winner