Eastside Recreation Center
The colors, forms and light of the desert inspired the team designing a recreation and community center for the City of El Paso. Cultural and geological references to nearby Hueco Tanks State Park anchor the building to its site.
Located on the fast-growing east side of El Paso, the center creates an oasis for a historically ignored, multigenerational population. It provides a competition-class aquatics facility, gym, senior center, and outdoor aquatic park.
The preferred design concept by the community was the Hueco Tanks Concept. Throughout the last 10,000 years, Hueco Tanks has provided water, food and shelter to travelers in the Chihuahuan Desert. The organization of the new facility is a collector of recreational activities organized around water-based activities (Hueco Tanks). Beautiful natural colors and ancient wall art found at the Hueco Tanks are inspirations for materials, colors, and graphics in the new facility.
In support of a city-driven lighting initiative, the south facade is splashed with vibrant colors at night.
At the center of the design has been public input with focus group/charrette meetings, and four more community input meetings. Multiple concepts were developed by our design team each with ideas that centered around indigenous regional themes.
