Linden Community Center 

This community center design has become a hub for a section of the city that needed positive community spaces. It provides places to gather, teach, learn, hang out, exercise and recreate in a safe and inviting building and park that connects to the neighborhood. 

The design pulls the user toward the large canopy entrance. Warm metal with wood veneer is reminiscent of park shelters. The building opens into a large lobby with gathering space. The concourse design provides casual supervision from the control desk to essentially every main gathering space in the building. The building program includes community rooms, art rooms and recreation courts, allowing visitors to exercise, recreate, learn and gather. Within this park setting is a playground, a sprayground and picnic shelters that create a sense of place and community for a neighborhood that has needed hope and positive spaces. 

The park has been designed with three zones ranging from extremely active to passive activities. An active “gather” zone anchored by the community center leads to a “play” space with a lawn area including one baseball field and two multipurpose fields for various organized activities. Finally, a “relax” area features a new pond, a pond overlook, an events lawn, and a pavilion and picnic areas for passive recreation. 

The facility was designed as an intergenerational community recreation center. During the design phase, the design team hosted a youth charrette and met with neighbors to determine what was important and what was special about their neighborhood. Out of that process came the addition of a partner space for the community’s women, infants and children. A teaching kitchen instructs healthy cooking with operable walls connecting to a classroom and the outside.

ARCHITECT OF RECORD

Moody Nolan

Columbus, Ohio

AQUATIC CONSULTANT/ENGINEER

Counsilman-Hunsaker

St. Louis, Mo.

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