Roswell officials who've checked into architectural alternatives see ways to design around the problem. Another Fulton County plant was built to look like a barn, complete with a plastic cow grazing out front, to blend into its bucolic setting. A facility in Calabasas, California, looks like a Spanish-style shopping center, while others in Spain and France are set behind luxurious façades.
The design for the Roswell sewage treatment plant will be incorporated into the contract for building the facilities. The plant, says Tim Equels, the county's assistant public works director, should "have some pleasing features that set the tone for what Roswell is." One option is cloaking it in colonial Georgian features to match the new fire station the city just built across the road.
The cost of giving the facility its engaging look--and keeping Roswell's gateway attractive--will be only an incidental part of the county's $80 million to $90 million construction cost.
