Arch302: Natatorium Primer

COMMUNITY CENTER FOR AQUATIC SPORT AND LEISURE

PROGRAM SCENARIO
The Community Center for Aquatic Sport is a mixed use and Leisure facility housing Olympic swimming and diving pools, gymnasium, community areas, press areas and administrative spaces in which to serve as a social condenser and venue for water sport events and training. The facility will serve both local Borough competition events at the level of public and private schools, and regional events. The proposal will comprise 115,000 sq. ft. of enclosed space, and approximately 100,000 sq. ft. of outdoor space whose program will be developed during design. Potential programs include: on site water catchment, swimming areas, amphitheater, public plaza, park recreational space and play ground facilities, 160,000 square feet of Parking and Bus loading and unloading areas. This facility will become a premier aquatics community center for Brooklyn located on a 375,000 sq ft site in McCarren Park at the site of the McCarren Park Pool in Greenpoint Brooklyn. This public assembly space will provide a venue for both local city wide events as well as serve as an important community center for the Williamsburg/ Greenpoint area of Brooklyn. The facility will hold classes and serve as a field trip venue for the public (as well as private) school system, year around. In addition to the facilities function as a city destination for aquatic recreational sport the facility will house community facilities that serve the other leisure sport venues for McCarren Park and the Greenpoint /Williamsburg community.

SITE SCENARIO
McCarren Park in GreenPoint Brooklyn is bounded by the neighborhood of Greenpoint to the North and East, a traditionally Polish community now transitioning with an increasing influx of high end condominium development in advance of the proposed extension park redevelopment along the East River to the North, and by Williamsburg to the West which is currently home to the „Hipster Movement‟ along with upscale condominium development and gentrification after the original influx of artists seeking cheap industrial space formerly typical of this area, and finally by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to the South. The site exists along an intersection in several urban Grids that developed from historical land parcels. The park land itself was the site of an undevelopable marsh and flood plane with tributaries that feed into the East River. McCarren Pool is currently an abandoned structure since 1984 when it became the site of extensive problems surrounding gang violence and drug sales that ultimately blighted the surrounding neighborhoods. It was the eighth of eleven New York City pools built during the depression through the WPA program, under the leadership of Robert Moses and Mayor La Guardia. It was said that Moses was an avid swimmer. Built in the summer of 1936 the McCarren Park Pool accommodated 6,800 swimmers of the 66,000 swimmers the eleven pools collectively accommodated. Until recently the pool has been used to accommodate music events after the influx of artists and „Hipsters‟ to the Williamsburg/ Greenpoint neighborhoods. Currently the primary monumental building has been Historically Registered and is under restoration with plans for a new pool.

Assets for Arch 302 SP10.

SYLLABUS

Arch 302 spr10_Final_10_01-12b Syllabus PDF > download

MODELS

Arch 302 McCarren Park Site Model Base> download

PROGRAM

Arch 302 Natatorium Program Template PDF> download

Arch 302 Program Templates Final> download

REFERENCE

Arch 302 Architecture of Watter +Humidity> download

Arch 302 Professional Consultants Guidelines V003 PDF> download

READERS