The Long Bridge Aquatics & Fitness Center will be Arlington’s first free-standing aquatics center. The proposed design is elegant and energy efficient solution that embraces the surrounding landscape and welcomes visitors with two civic-scaled entry porches clad in wood.
The focal 50-meter pool is surrounded by decks and the facility will also include a second leisure/family pool, a fitness center and community rooms. The design is program driven and inclusive; it supports sustainability emphasizing everyday connections of the community and environment while also promoting the integration of public space, landscape and architecture.
The project is part of a larger development of 10.5 acres of the park that will include environmental remediation, continuation of the Esplanade, public gathering areas and casual use space, one or more rain gardens, parking and other associated infrastructure.
Solicited as a design/build competition, the design needed to meet all criteria of the request for proposals, which included site remediation for heavily contaminated soils, and fit within a specified budget. During the fall of 2017, the Coakley & Williams Construction submission was announced as the competition winner. As part of the Coakley & Williams team, Page in association with MJMA is responsible for the architecture.
Located in Arlington, Long Bridge Park, north of Crystal City and adjacent to I-395, is a showplace of environmentally sound redevelopment of what was once a brownfield by the Potomac. The 30-plus-acre park features three full-size, multi-sport, lighted fields, walkways, an overlook with views of capital monuments, the Wave Arbor public art feature, a rain garden and more.
