A Resilient Recreation Center

by Marcy Marro | May 1, 2020 12:00 am

Completed in 2018, the $14 million facility is located next to a softball field, general sports field and basketball courts, and included upgrading a section of the adjacent 2-mile trail. Designed by ISTUDIO Architects[1], Washington, D.C., it includes a community room, fitness equipment, music room and other amenities for local residents, in addition to a balcony that cantilevers over a nearby stream. And in line with the DC Department of Parks and Recreation[2]’s mission to promote health, conservation and universal access to parks, the center accommodates community gatherings and fitness and wellness programs that help build resilience within the communities.

100-Year Flood Plain

Resilience was one topic the design team was constantly talking about. “One of the ways we think of resilience is the hard resilience of designing buildings so that they can be more resistant in the face of stressors due to climate change such as flooding, extreme weather events or rising sea levels,” explains Rick Harlan Schneider, AIA, APA, LEED AP, principal at ISTUDIO Architects. “In this case, the building is actually designed in a 100-year flood plain, which used to mean you were likely to see a significant flood once every 100 years or so. Nowadays those floods are coming much more frequently, and so we needed to design a facility that could withstand potential flooding and would be a place of refuge in times of trouble. So it’s designed with a lot of daylighting and natural ventilation that brings fresh air and light into the building without the use of mechanical systems.”

Due to the building’s location, the steel structure is built on concrete. As Schneider explains, the concrete is below grade, and since it’s in the flood plain, the building had to be raised above the mean flood level, which means the first floor is 5 to 7 feet above grade. “Because equity and accessibility are in the DNA of the building and how we design, we wanted to make sure it was easy for all to access,” Schneider says. “We designed it not just with stairs 7 feet high, but so the front entrance has ADA-accessible slopes to get people right up to the front of the building.”

To allow community members to enjoy the nearby woods and stream, the building’s second story was pushed out and cantilevered over the stream bed. “So now you’ve got this really great balcony that looks out over the stream and it creates a great place of both prospect and refuge, which are biophilic design principles,” Schneider says. “Prospect in this case is that high vantage point, while refuge is provided by a covered space and you’re tucked up into the trees there. We like to call it our little treehouse.”

Design and Materials

ISTUDIO’s design decisions are deeply rooted in the ideas of equity, resilience and sustainability. “What you see there,” Schneider says, “none of those are arbitrary decisions. The metals we chose were not arbitrary. The way they were designed and configured, were also not arbitrary. There’s a very specific rationale behind it.”

For example, while aluminum cladding is a popular choice, in a community that deals with vandalism, Schneider says steel cladding was a better option for its durability and easiness to maintain, in addition to its ability to be recycled. Marisa King, project architect with ISTUDIO, says the firm focused on that wash-and-wear feeling for the building, but still wanted it to be this bright, open, welcoming space for the community and something they could be proud of. “That’s why you’ll see all of the exposed steel structure,” she says. “We made the building celebrate the structure, and not try to hide it. The steel metal panels for the outside were picked specifically for their durability, as well as helping right-size the cost.”

The design team aimed to create a new, contemporary structure that the community could really celebrate. “There are a lot of existing brick structures in the community, but we wanted to find something that was more contemporary, and that would express the horizontality of the building,” King explains. “Metal panels especially helped us to emphasize that horizontal line as far as the paneling goes, and that had a really nice play with the aluminum structure and the corrugation of the screen. It was a way to help emphasize this big move that we had, in which this horizontal building and angled screen help to visually lead you up the stairs onto the second floor and out to the balcony.”

Tall windows on the second floor look out onto the practice fields and let in a ton of light. To ensure the building didn’t end up with too much daylighting, which would cause heat gain and glare problems, the designers added a perforated aluminum metal screen. Using perforated metal panels, the aluminum screen controls lighting and heat gain in the building, allowing the designers to downsize the mechanical systems and use them less often, while using natural ventilation more often. “When you cut down on glare, it helps provide a healthy interior environment,” Schneider says, “and that is also a key component of sustainability as well as biophilic principles by making the building more comfortable to be in.”

The aluminum screen provides the solar and shading properties the designers wanted, while being this icon that ties the whole building together. ATAS International Inc.[3], Allentown, Pa., provided the perforated metal panels for the screen, which was installed by Del Ray Glass & Glazing Co.[4], Arlington, Va. CHU Contracting Inc.[5], Chantilly, Va., installed metal wall panels from Petersen Aluminum Corp.[6], Elk Grove Village, Ill. Del Ray Glass also installed Dallas-based Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope’s[7] Series 3000 MultiPlane storefront system.

The metal panels were carefully calibrated to make sure they had the right amount of perforation to control both the glare and heat gain. “And,” Schneider says, “aluminum was a natural choice for the hanging screen because it’s so much lighter and the nice deep ribbed profile allowed us to span distances with it and still use the perforations.”

An integrated natural ventilation system brings fresh air into the rec center, which includes VCD-23 automated, insulated dampers from Honeywell International Inc.[8], Charlotte, N.C. “We like to say that this building breathes, and the reason is that the design is a natural ventilation system that is integrated into the mechanical system,” Schneider explains. “When the weather conditions are right, rather than creating hot or cool air by completely mechanical means, we bring in fresh, cool air using natural methods. Sensors tell the system to go into passive ventilation mode, and windows open up to let in fresh air, and solar-powered fans on the roof help draw air into the building. It’s all part of making the building an act of resilience; the building can breathe and light itself on its own without fossil fuels.”

Artists and Awards

Inside the building, works by local artists are incorporated into the glass walls at the fitness center and the community room. Murals depicting the story of Marvin Gaye’s life were printed on translucent film that was applied to the glass, allowing them to be see-through. “All of the biophilic features of the project are aimed at promoting wellness and creating architecture and designing buildings that are not only doing less bad, but are actually doing good,” Schneider says.

Additionally, the sustainable and unique design of the Marvin Gaye Recreation Center has garnered it some attention in the architecture and construction industry. The project has received the 2018 Presidential Citation for Sustainable Design[9] and the 2019 Sustainable Design[10] award from AIA DC[11]; the 2020 Third Award, Cultural (Built) award for Rethinking the Future Awards; and the 2020 AISC Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steel[12] (IDEAS.) Merit Award—Less Than $15 Million from the American Institute of Steel Construction[13].

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/a-resilient-recreation-center/

---