Claude Moore Community Recreation Center

Construction Cost: $14.5 million
Area / Square Feet: 91,000
Occupancy Date: March 2007

The design of this community center, which is located within Claude Moore Park in Loudoun County, Va., followed the desires of community residents to reflect a “farmacular” architecture, in contrast to the big-box suburban sprawl that surrounds the historic park setting. Accordingly, the building is organized as a farm compound of simple connected masses that orient to the park entry drive and adjacent woodland. A traditional barn-and-silo profile fronts smaller “out buildings” that extend from the central lobby and contain the gymnasium, community rooms, and teen and childcare areas.

The transparent central entry, control point and fitness area are an open double volume flanked by views into the gym and aquatics area, with a large control desk to welcome users. Overhead, a walk/jog track runs through the heart of the facility above the fitness area, with exterior vistas on two sides of the building and interior views to the entry lobby, climbing wall, gym and both pools.

The aquatics area includes a 50-meter pool and a leisure pool with sundeck in separate natatoria, linked by a common locker room and mechanical core, as well as a family changing suite. The iconic silo, clad in a regional glazed silo brick, serves as the launch pad of the spiral water slide, and a circular party room below opens to the pool deck.