City of Somerville
Poplar Street Pump Station

The Poplar Street Pump Station is part of the Union Square Stormwater Mitigation Program that will fundamentally change the way that Somerville manages much of its combined drainage system. Street rainwater runoff that could overwhelm wastewater treatment plants will be diverted to a 2.5 million gallon stormwater retention tank buried beneath a landscaped home for the ArtFarm urban agriculture program. Above ground, the building houses screening equipment and truck access spaces in a tall translucent box while a lower green-roof covered wing transitions into the new site landscape. A large mural wall and a street-level window giving passer-bys a glimpse of the process within and ground the project in the surrounding streetscape.