The Portland metro area boasts over 100 water towers and tanks. This design competition asked entrants to improve these oft-forgotten structures and renew their relationship with the city. The Cascade Mountains are the fountainhead for all major rivers in Oregon and hold 10 years of water in their strata–a veritable 700-mile-long sponge. Taking cues from this natural phenomena, half of Portland’s water towers would be relocated and buried in the mountain that supplants them. The remaining towers would be dispersed through Portland’s economic core and repurposed as pavilions for urban respite.
