Crystal Beach Aquatic Park
Madison, Ind.
- Architect/Landscape Architect: KNBA; Aquatic
- Designer/Aquatic Consultant: Counsilman-Hunsaker
- Pool/Spa/Waterfeature Contractor: Spear
- General Contractor: RL Turner
- Design Architect: Tim Doelling
This pool, set in the historic part of a riverside town, shows the perfect combination of nostalgia and future-forward perspective.
The town valued its pool, a mainstay for decades. While the gem had reached the end of it’s life, officials wanted to honor its original sea-shell shape even as it broadened versatility to serve a broader base of visitors.
The team accomplished this by segmenting the original pool’s square footage to accommodate distinct activities, while choosing lines and materials that placed the emphasis where they needed it.
Classic update
Taking advantage of the pool’s size, converted what had been a plain beach-entry pool into a multi-use water playground.
Working within the footprint, wing walls create the boundaries for each zone. The beach entry was shortened and kept at the shallow end, with new play features, while the pool’s deep end was turned into a diving zone.
A waterslide area was designed for those seeking more playful activity, while a current channel would enable visitors to get their exercise in with minimal sprawl. An underwater seating area in the center of the channel provides swimmers with a lounging destination. Adding to the in-pool seating opportunities, a long sunshelf takes up one wall, with two lap lanes spanning the wall opposite the entry stairs.
“It was kind of like fitting in puzzle pieces,” says Amrian Johnson, a project manager with St. Louis-based Counsilman-Hunsaker. “We had to fit the amenities with the amount of space required while still abiding by code.”
The circular set of steps between the sunshelf and lap lanes is centered on doors of an adjacent building to provides an inviting entry.
“We tried to make those as grand as possible,” Johnson says.
The upgraded pool had to still make sense with the brick buildings and more traditional architecture in the complex. Of course, maintaining the pool’s original outline gave them plenty of headway toward that objective.
To further combine old with new, the team chose subtler materials that would keep the spotlight on the newer play amenities. Bright colors placed the slide and water toys in the foreground while subtle interior finish materials kept the swim channel, seating areas and sunshelf in the background. Blue was chosen for the slide to evoke the water and sky, and also to keep the tallest of the play structures on the toned-down side of bright.
“It’s just very reminiscent of water and summertime and the nice blue sky,” Johnson says. “You still have color — it’s not that super sleek modern look with all white or stainless steel — but it’s not super poppy … it’s a nice pop of color but still relatively neutral. It’s still fun and inviting for kids, but not overly loud.”
SUPPLIERS:
- Access ramps/stairs: Spectrum Aquatics
- Circulation system/gutters/pumps: ASC Pumping Equipment
- Controller/control system: BECS Technology
- Filtration: Evoqua
- Guard chairs/safety equipment: Spectrum Aquatics
- Interactive waterfeatures: Vortex International
- Racing lines: Competitor
- Slides: Splashtacular
- Springboards: Duraflex
