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ACEC/MN Honorary Award Winner 2002

Water Booster Station Cannon Falls, Minnesota

The City of Cannon Falls, Minnesota, planned to provide municipal water service to the South Annexation Area along TH 52. Studies indicated that this could only be accomplished with an expanded system including three pressure zones, a new reservoir and a new water booster station.

Due to the extreme topographical relief (0-300' variation) in the City, siting of the booster station was critical. Potential sites for the station were restricted to home sites within a historic neighborhood. The City identified an existing house near the base of 300-foot bluffs, which was in dire need of repair and was in the process of a V.A. mortgage foreclosure. Selecting this site presented an opportunity to resolve several issues at one time.

SEH was selected to design the new booster station. The challenge was to design an aesthetically pleasing building that would blend into one of Cannon Falls' older neighborhoods. The new station's architecture was designed to look like the original 1950s home, which included gabled roofs, a front porch and vinyl siding over the masonry building. The peaceful neighborhood setting was preserved by adding features to the booster station structure such as sound attenuators, external radiators for the emergency generator and special masonry blocks with sound dampening equipment. These reduced noise levels from the station to below that of the adjacent Highway 24 traffic.

The City believes that the innovations and architecture of the booster station have met the neighborhood’s expectations. Many positive comments have been received about the look of the new facility and the City is pleased with the efforts of the SEH design team. This project shows that communities can successfully meet the challenge of siting new municipal facilities while reducing their impact upon the surrounding neighborhoods.