Metro Water Services was so pleased with the results of the work on the Filter Building that Centric received a second large commission at the Omohundro Water Treatment Plant in 2013 to restore and adaptively reuse five other impressive historic structures on that campus.
The Boiler Building, c. 1927, originally produced the electricity that ran the Omohundro Water Treatment Plant. As industry evolved, the complex was converted to run on electricity from outside sources, the building became under-utilized and the upper level looked like a rock music video studio. Centric was hired to adapt the cavernous industrial building into offices for plant staff, a new control room, breakrooms and other support spaces while restoring the exterior and maintaining an industrial aesthetic throughout the interior. Blessed with tall industrial steel windows with arched heads and a soaring clerestory above, the modern offices in the upper level now control the water production for the entire Nashville water utility district.
Originally constructed in 1888, the Pump Station has been expanded three times over the years to pump raw water from the Cumberland River up to the Filter Building where the water is purified for consumption. Think of it as a huge single-story Victorian brick building resting on top of a deep stone basin cut out of the bedrock to a level lower than the Cumberland River itself. Centric restored the exterior with new clay tile roofing, repointed the entire masonry exterior, repaired stone, and repainted the original steel windows.
The historic Water Intake #1 was originally constructed on dry land in 1927 before the nearby dam was built. Now the water for the Pump Station is drawn from another nearby intake and the old Water Intake #1 is in the middle of the Cumberland River functioning as a river traffic navigation buoy. Centric has restored the exterior masonry today and it looks a lot like a brick and stone rocket ship resting on the river bed below.
Awards: The Historical Commission of Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County 2017 Preservation Award
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
