Eastside Recreation Center
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Jen Maigret, former partner of MAde Studio
Washtenaw County Parks & Recreation Department
Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning,
OVPR (Office of the Vice President for Research)
Craig Borum, Principal (PLY Architecture)
Caileigh MacKellar
SDI-Structures
Catherine Baldwin, Leigh Davis, Kathryn Dreitzler, Geoffrey Salvatore, Catherine Truong
May 2012- December 2012
2013 Michigan AIA Honor Award, Unbuilt Category
EASTSIDE RECREATION CENTER presents an interdisciplinary urban design for a mixed-use, recreation center on a site on the Huron River, immediately adjacent to downtown Ypsilanti. The recreational center is an architectural extension of a riverfront tree canopy that establishes continuity between a municipal park system, conceptualized by the Olmstead Brothers, a regional green network and the historical downtown. The ground is a constructed landscape that generously accommodates the recreational programs while the floating canopy roof above defines and connects the spaces underneath. These spatial strategies promote social interaction, transparency to the city and a connection to the Border to Border Trail. In these ways, the Eastside Recreation Center is positioned at the heart of a valuable confluence and is both a catalyst for urban revitalization, and an opportunity to showcase sustainable approaches to the redevelopment of a mixed use, postindustrial, river front property.
“The special arrangement of the sports programs makes for a dynamic experience within the structure.
-2013 AIA Michigan Honor Award Jury”