Although much of the site appeared to be an empty overgrown lot at street level, below grade the team found a series of concrete vaults that were up to 14 ft deep containing sand and piping.

“What looked like just an open field from the top got pretty complicated once you went below ground,” says Juliann Reazor, project manager at Gilbane Building Co. “What we had to work with was largely unreinforced, 100-plus-year-old concrete structures.”

The community center’s fitness facilities provide essential resources for promoting health and wellness in the Reservoir District.
Photo by Haley Johnston, courtesy Gilbane Building

Balancing historic preservation, sustainability objectives and community needs required the team to address some formidable technical and preservation challenges. Early site analysis revealed that a creek originally ran through the site, including under the area designated for the new community center. Significant portions contained backfill material and a lot of the structures were showing signs of failure.

The team initially considered using traditional auger cast piles as the foundation system for the center. However, the site’s poor soil conditions rendered traditional foundations unfeasible, so the team utilized controlled modulus columns. Ground improvements densified in-situ soils to support less intensive foundations, directly addressing the site's poor soil conditions. The concept allowed for lighter, more efficient foundation systems, reducing both cost and construction time.

“We eliminated several months from the schedule that would have been needed to complete auger cast piles,” Reazor added. “It also reduced the depth that we needed to go down. So all of those factors combined resulted in net cost savings.”

For the indoor pool, soil instability and limited space led to a “pool in a box” design—a concrete structure that provided essential lateral support without relying on conventional methods.

For a structurally compromised historic filter cell structure, the team executed selective demolition and employed polyurethane soil densification techniques, with a post-tensioned slab installed to create a “sandwich” effect. The approach preserves the cell’s historic integrity while ensuring structural safety. Other structures were stabilized and adapted for modern use through close coordination with preservation consultants, ensuring the site’s architectural legacy was honored while meeting contemporary needs.

The completed project’s design embraces the site’s natural topography through a split-level recreation center with sustainable features that include a vegetated roof, louvered sunshades and native plantings. Sustainability was critical to the design. Permeable pavement throughout the site reduces stormwater runoff, while promoting natural groundwater recharge, directly addressing urban water management challenges. Strategically placed bioretention ponds capture stormwater to help filter and manage drainage from the site. The project’s water management features also create educational opportunities about conservation and natural systems, while echoing the site's original historical purpose as part of the McMillan Sand Filtration Site. Rain gardens complement the systems by providing additional stormwater treatment and habitat creation.

The project promotes low-carbon mobility through infrastructure supporting electric vehicle charging stations and a proposed DDOT Capital Bikeshare station.

The team exceeded the project’s LEED Silver certification target by achieving LEED Gold. It also contributed to a broader LEED for Neighborhood Development Gold target through thoughtful site planning and community integration.

The project also included restoration of the “Olmsted Walk” perimeter trail—a concrete path that was originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted as part of the publicly accessible portion of the site. “We found remnants of the existing walk when we started doing the excavation for the job,” Reazor says. “A lot of the pieces were broken. We were able to use the pieces that we could find, clean them up and work very closely with our trade contractors to develop the spec for the mix design. We tried to get [the mix] as close as possible and emulate the same the same color, the same texture and the aggregates.”

Working under a design-build delivery method, Reazor says the team was able to collaborate and find solutions to multiple challenges throughout the project. “Being able to have that collaborative process with our design team all throughout the life of the project was paramount to getting this job done on time,” she adds. “We really fostered a lot of collaboration with our trade partners as well. We found the right people to have at the table to be able to help guide us through what solutions were out there and what would be the best fit for the parameters of the project.”

The $85-million project was completed ahead of schedule and at budget.