Shell Road North Pump Station
Richmond, BC
The design for a new pump station on the banks of the Fraser River was led by Aplin Martin in collaboration with Hapa Collaborative for the City of Richmond. Our idea was simple – expose the historic waterways of Lulu Island, drawing in the public from the Dike Trail to connect to the river and the land supported by infrastructure.
The pump station is draped with a concrete inlay archival map of the sloughs that used to drain through Richmond. These watercourses are the precedent for the engineered approach now taken: the buildings refer to the past from which they derive.
A small bronze sculptural element reveals the site. From the map, travellers are invited onto the roof for expansive views that connect this infrastructure to the action of the Fraser. Log booms populate the working river, and people can linger on a heavy timber bench with lighting that shines from within. Infrastructure illuminated; landscape legible.
