Conceptual Design
Services to Match Your Project
Conceptual design is where the first rough representation of the facility is graphically drawn out. It needs to reflect the project programming analysis and constraints that have been previously determined.
Regional Planning Commission staff examine potential regional HHW/VSQG collection site.
Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission, NH
Assessed the viability of using an existing household hazardous waste (HHW) collection building, located at the Hartford, VT, Recycling and Waste Management Center, as a regional collection hub for household and small business hazardous waste generators from neighboring communities on either side of the Connecticut River, in Vermont and New Hampshire. In addition to a site visit and interviews with key local planners and stakeholders, state regulatory staff was interviewed regarding the two very different sets of state rules regarding permitting and operation of a regional HHW/VSQG collection facility.
The existing facility provided a very good basis to be expanded for use as a regional HHW collection facility and likely could serve at least the small businesses in neighboring Vermont communities. The resulting conceptual design featured an expanded facility footprint to safely and efficiently accommodate the anticipated waste streams as well as a modified traffic flow on the existing site.
Boulder County staff testing the logistics and spacing of the conceptual design at full scale.
Boulder County, CO
Boulder County staff participated in two HHW facility design workshops provided by SWA before beginning their design process. Subsequently, SWA assisted Boulder County in preparing an RFP and then evaluating design-build team proposals. A design charrette was held with County and SWA staff and the design-build team to inform the development of a conceptual design to replace their existing campus-style HHW collection facility.
The conceptual design floorplan was ground-truthed at a vacant parking lot by outlining in chalk at full scale the proposed floor plan dimensions and locations of waste containers. Then a forklift, work carts, and materials handling tasks were simulated to evaluate the operational realities of the proposed floor plan. This real-space dry-run helped solidify the conceptual design and tweaked the final design drawings.
Tri-County's permanent HHW collection facility under construction.
Tri-County Health District, OR
Tri-County Health District took the lead in providing year-round HHW collection services to their three rural county region including Hood River, Sherman and Wasco Counties, along the Columbia River in Oregon. The middle county, Wasco, provided a site at the local waste hauler yard to build the centrally-located permanent facility at The Dalles. Under contract to the Oregon State Department of Environmental Quality, SWA provided verification of site appropriateness and a conceptual design for the new HHW collection facility. The conceptual design provided the basis for final design drawings and subsequent permitting and construction.