Southeast Community Center
Kansas City, Mo.
- Aquatic Designer: Waters Edge Aquatic Design
- Pool/Spa/Waterfeature Contractor: Custom Engineering
- General Contractor: Strata Architecture & Preservation
The pool at the Southeast Community Center, serving Kansas City, Mo., was fairly new, but had deteriorated prematurely. By 2020, during the depths of the pandemic, the city needed the pool assessed to decide on the best course of action.
Waters Edge Aquatic Design determined that the vessel would need replacement, so the city took advantage of the opportunity to start with a clean slate. To attract a wider cross section of citizens, the new pool would need to accommodate a range of programming, including open swim, lap swimming, aquatic fitness and senior instruction. The community also needed a pool deep enough to hold lifeguard-training courses.
Sophia Young/Patrick Michael Liston
A lot with a little
To provide this amount of flexibility in the space provided, the team designed a pool with two zones so distinct that they almost read as separate vessels, connected only by a thin channel that allows one to easily glide from one to the other.
The shallow-water beach-entry area features two large, animal-themed spray features, along with several fountains and jets, and a set of ADA stairs. Next to it sits a 25-meter activity pool, with two swim lanes, a basketball hoop, climbing wall and deep end for lifeguard diving.
Behind the pools hangs a four-piece mural commissioned especially for the center. By Nashville artist Woke3, it conveys people’s deep connection with water and its significance beyond physical survival. The artist depicted citizens of the city to ground it in community, while sea life reminds visitors that water ties the planet together. Each of the four panels contains a hidden heart to represent the heart of the country.
To perform the renovation/rebuild, crews removed some panels of the floor-to-ceiling windows that comprised one wall of the facility. This allowed access for equipment and materials for part of the construction. The team had to work with minimal disruption to the remainder of the community center. Crews adhered to certain no-hammering hours and employed rock grinding rather than rock hammering to reduce vibration as much as possible.
SUPPLIERS:
- ADA lift: Aqua Creek Products
- Basketball goal/rails/pumps: Pentair
- Chemical feeders: Stenner
- Climbing wall: Aqua Climb
- Controller/control system: ProMinent
- Filtration/main drains: Neptune Benson
- Flowmeter: seametrics
- Interactive waterfeatures: Vortex International
- Pool paint: Tnemec
- Underwater bubbler: Water Odyssey
- UV system: ChlorKing