Optima designs apartments with "largest private rainwater harvesting" system in the US

Local development and design studio Optima has announced the six-tower residential McDowell Mountain development in Arizona, designed to harvest 210,000 gallons of rainwater in an underground vault.

Currently under construction in North Scottsdale, McDowell Mountain will contain six, eight-storey residential buildings clustered around a 10-acre yard.

Renders show the buildings clad in brown-tinted glass with plants cascading off balconies. The buildings are mainly rectangular, although certain sections jut out towards the central green space to portion off the large central space into more discrete plazas.

The buildings will be elevated on pillars, with programming such as dining and seating areas pictured underneath. Roofs will be landscaped with trees and low-lying bushes, as is the large, central yard.

The concrete-framed residential buildings will contain 1,330 condominiums, as well as a slew of outdoor amenities such as Olympic-length swimming rooftop pools, running tracks and pickleball courts.

According to Optima, the development is the "next evolution in environmentally friendly, state-of-the-art, all-inclusive residences" and includes a number of sustainable strategies, such as rooftop solar panels, high-efficiency heating and cooling and direct connections to surrounding bike paths.

The development's irrigation system will also be powered by a private rainwater harvesting system, which is planned to be the "largest in the US" according to the studio.

"Home to the largest private rainwater harvesting system in the US, the project is designed to collect rainwater for all on-site irrigation and reduce residential and commercial water consumption," said the team.

Although Optima has designed and built three other similar residential developments in Scottsdale, this will be the first to incorporate such a large rainwater harvesting system.

According to Optima architect David Hovey Jr, who designed the project with David Hovey Sr, the harvesting system was incorporated into the design while Scottsdale was undergoing a drought.

The retention system was designed as part of a deal to enable the development, along with aquaphor credits purchased by the developer for the city.

"There are two water concepts that we gave to the city as part of zoning," Hovey Jr told Dezeen. "One was that we actually just gave [water] to [the city], and then we also put the tank on site, which handles all of our irrigation."

"For this particular development, this water solution came from the fact that we were in the middle of a drought. It really pushed us to think creatively about how we can get the elected officials who are making the decision on this project comfortable with another 1,330 units."

Water rights in the desert landscape of the American Southwest are complicated, as decades-long political battles have ensued over its main water source, the Colorado River.

The water body has been divided into several basins, which provide commercial, residential and agricultural water to surrounding cities and towns.

These municipalities each have their own regulations regarding water rights, and as such, developers such as Optima address these issues using different approaches.

"I was really happy with the way the city was able to listen to us and to come up with a creative solution to enable housing to keep up with the population growth that we're having out here, [but] have a water sustainable solution," said Hovey Jr. "

McDowell Mountain is currently in phase one of construction, with the first tower set to open in Fall 2025 for move-ins.

Elsewhere in Arizona, Jones Studio has designed an educational centre that will highlight the "preciousness" of water in the state, and Dig Studio and Lake Flato revamped the Scottsdale Civic Plaza.

The images are courtesy of Optima

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