Steven Holl ‘s Whitney Waterworks is a water filtration plant shaped like a pipe, covered in stainless steel shingles and set in a field on the outskirts of New Haven.

Commissioned by the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority, the structure is so big and shiny that it might be visible from Mars.

The building is one in a series of innovative architecture teamed with prosaic purposes. Instead of promising invisibility, authorities are now trusting utility buildings to prominent architects.

“In an increasingly crowded world, there are more and more infrastructure buildings, and they’re going to occupy increasingly sensitive locations,” said the Boston architect Jane Weinzapfel. And often, she added, the buildings are far larger than anything around them. It takes architecture to tame giants.

Via archinect The New York Times.
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