East Side Recreation Center
In collaboration with
Jen Maigret, former partner of MAde Studio
Main Collaborator / Design Team
PLY Architecture, Craig Borum, Caighley MacKellar
Design Assistants
Catherine Baldwin, Leigh Davis, Kathryn Dreitzler, Geoffrey Salvatore, Catherine Truong
Client & Co-sponsor
Washtenaw County Parks & Recreation Department
Co-sponsor
Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning
OVPR (Office of the Vice President for Research)
Engineer
SDI Structures
Date
May 2012- December 2012
Awards
2013 Michigan AIA Honor Award, Unbuilt Category
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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.