When the Under Armour founder’s whiskey company, Sagamore Spirit, decided to build a showcase distillery in downtown Baltimore, they knew they wanted to create a showpiece water tower. After all, this would become part of an enormous development including condos, shopping, trails, as well as a new Under Armour headquarters campus.
There were challenges in transforming this vision from idea to reality. One complicated aspect Caldwell had to navigate when constructing this project: the distillery building was already in place before we set out to erect and paint the tank. Today, this water tower structure stands right next to the new Sagamore Spirit distillery building, located in a courtyard with processing, tasting, and restaurant buildings nearby. The tower is a showpiece testament to Sagamore Spirit, Under Armour, and the City of Baltimore.
Caldwell designed the water tower with a “retro” look, complete with a cone roof and floor, a narrow tank diameter, and an extended vertical shell. The carbon steel tank stands on four outer 20” diameter tubular columns and has a 3’ wide balcony. At 120’ tall, anyone in Baltimore can see this tower from Interstate 95. The tank stores water for the whiskey’s proofing process, spring-fed from a natural limestone spring at Sagamore Farm, flowing 22 miles from the distillery.
In addition to extraordinary coordination challenges with fabrication, field construction, and safety, Sagamore Spirit presented Caldwell’s tank design and build team with a multi-layered project that required planning and creativity; all at a quick turnaround to meet an ambitious schedule. The owner had three bells weighing several tons. Cast in a foundry nearly 150 years ago, Sagamore Spirit wanted to hang these bells off the side of the tank, creating access to them from an added walkway. A great deal of ingenuity and collaboration went into the design, fabrication, and construction of this project’s stunning results.
