WRD's "GRIP" Design Earns Award of Merit at Gold Nugget Awards Ceremony

Groundwater Reliability Improvement Project selected in "Best Special Use Project"

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Water Replenishment District of Southern California

Jun 27, 2016, 01:16 ET

SAN FRANCISCO, June 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- WRD's Groundwater Reliability Improvement Project (GRIP) earned the Gold Nugget's Award of Merit in the Best Special Use Project category at last Saturday's ceremony. The future GRIP facility, located in a residential neighborhood in the City of Pico Rivera, will use state-of-the-art technology to daily treat and purify billions of gallons of recycled wastewater annually to replenish the local groundwater basin for domestic use later.

"WRD is thrilled and deeply proud to receive such a prestigious recognition for a project that will free our region of Southern California from the need to import billions of gallons of water annually from Northern California and the Colorado River," said WRD Board President Willard H. Murray, Jr. "Most importantly, this award proves that the public projects, even a water treatment facility, do not have to be void of artistic creativity or shared community space."

The Gold Nugget Awards are the oldest and most prestigious design awards in the nation and a centerpiece of PCBC, the largest homebuilding tradeshow representing the Western United States, Mexico, Canada and over 25 other countries. The awards recognize the most creative achievements across professional fields that improve communities through exceptional concepts in design, planning and development. The Gold Nugget Awards feature the most innovative builders, developers, architects, and land planners in the United States and all international countries.

The purified water produced at the facility will replace 7 billion gallons of imported water from Northern California to refill the local basins. The project will ultimately help secure the future water supply of the West and Central Basins of Southern California for more than 4 million people. The facility, however, features interactive water education space for the public, a roof garden and ground level open space that will showcase drought tolerant demonstration gardens.

The international top honorees are selected for 47 unique categories and each is recognized with the Award of Merit. From this elite group, a panel of six industry professionals from across the country review and determine Grand Award winners in each of the respective categories.

The Gold Nugget Awards were born in 1963 to recognize builder/developer excellence throughout the United States and Internationally. The Gold Nugget quickly became known for their trend-setting qualities and geographic reach. The Awards not only honor housing designs, but commercial, recreational and land planning achievements.

In August of 2015, WRD held a community charrette to enlist ideas for the design of the proposed GRIP facility. Several of the region's top architectural firms participated and learned from local residents what they wished to see in the proposed facility. In September 2015, the architectural firms submitted their renderings which incorporated community concepts from the charrette and SVA Architects' design was chosen as the winner among the competitive submissions.

The Water Replenishment District of Southern California is the regional groundwater management agency that protects and preserves the quantity and quality of groundwater for two of the most utilized urban basins in the State of California. The service area is home to over ten percent of California's population `residing in 43 cities in southern Los Angeles County. WRD is governed by a publicly elected Board of Directors which includes Willard H. Murray, Jr., Robert Katherman, John D. S. Allen, Sergio Calderon, and Albert Robles.

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SOURCE Water Replenishment District of Southern California