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City of Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation

Kempsville Recreation Center

Details
Virginia Beach, VA
Location
81,000 SF
Size
2017
Completion
LEED Silver
Certification
Design Architect
Moody Nolan
Architect of Record
HBA
Collaborators
Awards
Hampton Roads Association for Commercial Real Estate
Juror’s Choice Award
Hampton Roads Association for Commercial Real Estate
Award of Excellence, Best Recreation & Entertainment Project
2017

The new center reaffirms a commitment to providing residents with low-cost, family-friendly recreation, distinguishing Virginia Beach from neighboring communities.

 

The new building is located on the same site as the original building, completely surrounded by a single-family residential neighborhood.

Accessible wellness

The design and massing of the new facility intentionally reduce the building scale, providing a transparent and inviting presence within the community.  The building is easily approachable by pedestrians and the transparent façade offers views of active recreation to promote engagement.

Biophilic Mimicry

The interior design captures the flow of water, ocean, and sand, inspired by the local Virginia Beach community. Interior colors were selected to echo the ocean vernacular, creating a strong sense of place.

The new center features a large Natatorium that contains a 6-lane competition pool with competition diving areas. 

Sustainable Design

This facility incorporates a number of sustainable design strategies, to offset operational costs, such as the storm-water management through raingardens, bamboo wood floors, a geothermal HVAC system, daylighting harvesting, LED lighting with light pollution control. One of the more interesting recycling efforts was in using the crushed concrete from the demolition of the original building as the stone base for the new parking lots.

Exploring Timber

Exploring Timber image
 

Exploring Timber

The building design was envisioned as an analogy to a sand dune fence, common to the Virginia Beach community aesthetic.
Exploring Timber image
 

Exploring Timber

This concept expanded into the heavy timber structure, creating a dynamic visual element and a unique sense of place.
Exploring Timber image
 

Exploring Timber

This concept expanded into the heavy timber structure, creating a dynamic visual element and a unique sense of place.
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