I was exploring Lafayette, a suburban community with a population of 25,391 (2020 Census). It is anchored by a small town with many creature comforts like restaurants, a Whole Foods, and the like. It’s quite comfortable and well-situated between Oakland and Walnut Creek.
More interestingly, there’s a local park surrounding a 1.4 billion gallon reservoir located within and sharing its name with the town. The 928 acre Lafayette Reservoir Recreation Area¹ has the amenities you would expect from picnicking, fishing, various trails, and even a visitor center (that was unfortunately closed). The most notable, the paved 2.7 mile Lakeside Nature Trail can take an entire afternoon depending on your walking speed (“Brochure Map”). Seeing the different angles of the reservoir was enjoyable, though probably mundane to people who find all suburban parks indistinguishable.
Actually, something is weird about this place. There’s this random tall cement tower in the middle of the water. First I thought it might be some observation post to get a panoramic view from the water… But from where would you even enter? Why does this high tower even exist?
Apparently the 170 feet tall tower was built in 1927 as a spillway (“Retrofit Project”). A spillway is the mechanism for water to passthrough a dam, avoiding potential damages from overfilling capacity (Britannica). Honestly, the answer somewhat confuses me because I associate spillways with a more clearly defined path, such as the large hole in Lake Berryessa being a spillway for the Monticello Dam. Therefore, I am either missing information or cannot see it directly.
Location: Napa County, California, United States of America
This tower is still abnormally forty feet taller than it should as the dam had to be built thirty-three feet lower than originally planned. Furthermore, the tower itself is at risk of collapsing to an earthquake. The owners and operators of the reservoir, the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) aims to retrofit the tower to fulfill contemporary safety standards, while remaining an effective spillway, and to possibly “match [the] aesthetic of other District towers” (“Retrofit Project”). What’s the proposed new, innovative, and modern solution? Behold! The retrofit’s artistic render for the future!
Artistic render of the proposed “Lafayette Reservoir and Outlet Tower Seismic Retrofit Project” presented to the Lafayette city council by EBMUD engineers on January 9, 2023. Source: “Retrofit Project”
What? Did you expect more? Honestly, it’s pretty amusing to me that EBMUD had to hire someone to photoshop a render of block of cement onto the reservoir, and then explain in lay-terms why this utterly pedestrian design is objectively better for the community.
But this solution creates a new problem for Lafayette. When Lafayette was trying to distinguish itself from other similar suburban towns, they sought a distinct, marketable icon that locals in the San Fransisco Bay Area can uniquely attribute to their town: the tower that now EBMUD is adamant about demolishing.
This means one of many possibilities:
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- Accede to the EBMUD’s plan and dismantle the tower.
- Find a new icon or produce a new marketable symbol for the town.
- Pressuring EBMUD to design a more “marketable” tower design than simply a block of cement.
- Move the tower somewhere else on land.
- Either of these options will require expending financial resources to find this new symbol, and then to market this symbol (i.e. changing the website).
- Try to preserve the tower.
- Do nothing, risk the safety of others.
- Do an alternative retrofitting project that preserves the tower (and the abnormal height).
- Both of these method could cost millions of dollars in damages and construction costs (that do not guarantee safety from earthquakes) (“Retrofit Project”).
- Accede to the EBMUD’s plan and dismantle the tower.
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The proposed solutions. EBMUD’s preferred solution “tower shortening” costs $3.5 million. The others “post tensioned anchors” and “base isolators” cost at least $7 million and $4 million respectively (“Retrofit Project”; Cuff).
I think this situation is interesting because it forces a community to grapple with their identity. And having an outsider explain to residents that their marketable and distinguishable stylized hunk of concrete is a threat to the area is something that could be difficult to process. It certainly has brought debate to the city council. On one side, Councilman Mike Anderson “would love to see the landmark maintained” because “[w]e have adopted it as an iconic part of the city” (Cuff). On the other, Councilman Wei-Tai Kwok noted that while “we might have to search for a different icon for out city… it’s a design opportunity to create something new and iconic that’s beautiful and different” (Fancher).
Something to ponder, is that this admittedly somewhat goofy debate raises the question of what defines a communities identity? Is it the people? Is it the natural environment? Is it heritage they built?
Also, what would you do if you were in the position of Lafayette? Would you dismiss the tower as an artistically over stylized block of concrete or try to protect this symbol because of it being the community’s heritage? Personally, I would at least try to create new, contemporaneous symbols like a municipal flag, while deciding the merits of either side. But, what do you think?
If you want to see my pictures of the area, click the picture below:
Footnotes
- Brochure available in English, Español, and 漢字 (Traditional Chinese Characters).
Works Cited
“Lafayette Reservoir Recreation Area Brochure Map.” East Bay Municipal Utility District, https://web.archive.org/web/20230203004309/https://www.ebmud.com/download_file/force/16676/558?Lafayette_Reservoir_Brochure__Map.pdf.
“Lafayette Reservoir and Outlet Tower Seismic Retrofit Project.” East Bay Municipal Utility District, 9 Jan. 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230319023318/https://www.ebmud.com/application/files/6516/7588/6630/Lafayette_City_Council_EBMUD_1-9-23_Lafayette_Tower_Final_Presentation_006.pdf.
“Spillway.” Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 18 Aug. 2021. school-eb-com.ccclez.idm.oclc.org/levels/high/article/spillway/69131. Accessed 19 Mar. 2023.
LaFayette 2020 Census Data, United States Census, https://web.archive.org/web/20230805214031/https://data.census.gov/table?q=Lafayette+city,+California&tid=DECENNIALPL2020.P1.
Fancher, Lou. “Lafayette Reservoir Tower Seismic Retrofit Project Could Change Look of Iconic Structure.” Lamorinda Weekly, 18 Jan. 2023, https://web.archive.org/web/20230118062508/http://www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/issue1624/pdf/Lafayette-Reservoir-Tower-Seismic-Retrofit-Project-could-change-look-of-iconic-structure.pdf.
Cuff, Denis. “Lafayette’s Iconic Water Tower: Save it, or Save the Public Millions?” The East Bay Times, 24 Jan. 2018, https://web.archive.org/web/20210916040401/https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/01/24/lafayettes-iconic-water-tower-save-it-or-save-the-public-millions/.