Fruita Community Center

Fruita, Colo.
Construction Cost: $12.1 million
Area / Square Feet: 55,000
Occupancy Date: January 2011

The City of Fruita joined forces with Mesa County Libraries to replace the small single-room branch in the basement of City Hall with a new branch library adjoining a new community recreation center. Both the recreation center and the library share a common entry, as well as use of multipurpose meeting rooms, offices and restrooms.

The new recreation center meets a variety of user needs, with primary components including an indoor leisure pool, a senior center, gymnasium space, a fitness center and aerobics areas.

The building’s exterior combines flat-roofed forms with a central clerestory dormer, and clear and translucent glass walls maximize views and cast daylight into all spaces. Carefully designed to take full advantage of both interior and exterior relationships with covered porches and large windows, the community center forms a unified civic complex and creates a comfortable social experience.

The organization of the building is conceptually based on the image of a winding canyon, with intriguing spaces created where angles intersect, widen and contract. Open areas, including pace for stools overlooking the gymnasium, encourage social interaction and ensure activity is always visible.