St. Aloysius Community Center
Chicago, IL

Project
St. Aloysius Community Center Rainwater Harvesting For Landscaping
St. Aloysius Parish Center is a 36,000 square foot facility located on Chicago’s northwest side. This LEED Silver building houses religious education functions as well as a food pantry, day care space, gymnasium and thrift store. Site improvements include an outdoor play space, a rooftop garden and parking facilities.
Challenge
For their new community center, St. Aloysius wanted to have a “green” building that could earn USGBC LEED certification, with a green roof, energy saving lighting and other efficient systems. There was an interest in water saving features – like rainwater harvesting, but the budget was very limited and the system demands small. WMA engineers contacted Wahaso to help design and build a simple system that would still be commercial grade with appropriate safety features.

Water Supply Sustainability Index (2050)
Project Details
LOCATION
Chicago, IL
CLIENT
Aloysius Catholic Church
DESIGN & SPECIALTY
Plumbing Engineer, Civil Engineer, Commercial Contractors, Commercial Architect
BUILDING TYPE
Institutional
SYSTEM TYPE
Rooftop Rainwater to Irrigate Landscaping
COMMISSIONING DATE
September, 2012
Project Gallery

Solution
Wahaso designed a simple system with a prefabricated 3,200-gallon steel tank that would capture rainwater from the roof through a simple screened inlet on the top of the tank. We then put all the filtration and pumping equipment in a NEMA 4 weatherproof box that allowed easy access for maintenance while protecting equipment from vandals.
Results
While simple and low-cost, the St. Aloysius system delivers safe filtered and sanitized water with a reliable, commercial-grade treatment system for seasonal irrigation, saving about 28,500 gallons of water annually.