Clark Park Community Center & Pool

Since opening in 1949, Clark Park has been a beloved neighborhood gathering place, complete with pool, rec center, garden and sports fields. In the time since, it had fallen into disrepair with the pool no longer functioning, weathered structures and lifeless landscape taking the place of active participation by residents. When the pandemic hit, the City of Tempe mobilized to bring this place back to life. Human connection, especially outside had never been so important.

The project team began by talking to folks who lived around the park, many of whom had grown up there and remembered better days among the cypress, elm, palm and ash trees. At first, the program was limited to creating a few shade structures and a locker room for what would become the new pool. As the community spoke up, the project grew into a multifaceted recreation center – open to all sides of the park, and available for classes, gatherings, performances and special events, in addition to a safe landing pad for the aquatics activities to come.

Wrapped with (recycled content) cementitious fiber panels, the pavilion-like structure grows out of the new native landscaping, is daylit, and infused with fresh air by operable windows throughout. The new building (and resulting park + pool + garden + dog run) has become the epicenter for the community once again.

The design responds to the surrounding neighborhood scale with a low roof form and wood ceiling canopy that floats above open gathering spaces that expand the program occurring within. Deliberate interior sight-lines connect each space, allowing for direct engagement with staff at all locations. City-funded art installations lend identity and vibrance with lithomosaic murals and kiln-formed glass for colored clerestories and skylights that embrace the changing light of the Arizona desert – sunrise to sunset.