virginia beach rec center birthday parties

There’s another metric that counts here, too. Over the lifetime of this building - let’s say 30 years for the sake of argument - that’s $300,000 in savings minimum on just the utility bill alone. In its first year, the city realized $10,000 in energy savings through a 20% reduction in energy usage and a 32% reduction in potable water usage. Solar shades on the exterior and roller shades on the interior offer occupants more control in adjusting for heat or glare. The building maintains a consistent temperature and energy usage thanks to 70 geothermal wells buried beneath the parking lot, which exchanges heat in the summer and absorbs heat in the winter. VIA Design Architects situated the building to conserve 65% of the site for open space (not to mention pollinator plantings), and more than half the site supports habitat low impact maintenance strategies and habitat restoration. The central atrium where the slopes intersect includes a grand staircase that doubles as risers for all-staff assemblies and accommodates a small conference area beneath it. In elevation, the dramatic slopes of each axial volume creates opportunities for a variety of spaces inside from airy to intimate. In plan, the building’s main axis is composed of two long volumes that saddle up to each other and contain common areas, break-out spaces, circulation, and offices.

Regionally, the project is part of a spate of cities upgrading their facilities to meet greater demands and a higher standard of green including Moseley Architects’ LEED Sliver Patrick Henry Recreation Center (and PreK-8 School) for Alexandria, completed in 2000, and iStudio’s LEED Gold Marvin Gaye Recreation Center for DC, completed in 2018. Operating seven physical centers, accommodating dozens of after-school and weekend classes (from archery to martial arts to swimming), and hosting birthday parties is as much of an infrastructural challenge as it is an administrative challenge. Locally, the project arrives at a critical time for Virginia Beach as it recovers from COVID-related rec center closures and, now that they’re back open, current and future staffing shortages. In 2020, VIA Design Architects completed the Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation Administration Building, which consolidates multiple offices from around town and facilitates Virginia Beach’s sustainability goals of environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and economic vitality. Image courtesy VIA Design Architects.Īdministering all of these needs is a separate challenge altogether. It would be too obvious to say “less is more” here, but the fact is that the less programmed today’s recreation centers have become, the closer they have gotten to actually accommodating community needs, which privilege flexibility over fixed amenity. The mathematics of the ideal recreation center have changed recently, however, measured less by how intricately they’re programmed and more by how adaptable they can be. The not-so-good ones were easy to spot because of their shabbiness, usually because of the cost of maintaining “more.”

The good ones were regularly maintained and became community hubs. Pools, gyms, basketball courts, tennis courts, handball courts, playgrounds, ball fields, changing rooms, and offices-all defined spaces for specific activities.

Recreation centers used to be highly programmed places.

Virginia beach rec center birthday parties