JOINT EFFORT
The Center for Recreational Excellence represents a distinct partnership of the City of Hobbs, Lea County, New Mexico Junior College, Hobbs Municipal Schools, the University of the Southwest and the J.F Maddox Foundation. The project was designed to create numerous multipurpose spaces to accommodate a wide range of ages.
BUILT ON ENERGY
Energy, including water energy and oil, is a local resource that was a theme throughout the project. Design threads that came out of the community feedback included transformation, centrifugal, centripetal and confluence. The area, which is located in the desert of New Mexico, sees flash floods during thunderstorms, a feature that was incorporated into the sound, lighting and water of the project. The filtration system saves about a million gallons of water each year.
VERSATILE SPACES
Making the spaces versatile for different functions included adding a big-screen television in the natatorium for use at swim meets and dive-in movie nights. Lighting themes bring a variety of ambiance to the spaces, while the sound system is used for swim meets, paging, music and sound effects. The sound and lighting control systems are linked to the aquatic features to create fantasy flash floods and thunderstorms in the leisure pool. The slides were emphasized by keeping them inside the envelope of the leisure pool, with the exception of one slide spiraling through the wall, into the fitness area and back again.
Eagle Lakes Aquatic Facility
