Grand Prairie, Texas

The Bowles Park Life Center is a 40,000 SF building designed to provide a focal point to a redeveloping community center. The building design provides for neighborhood youth recreation, a gym, locker rooms, meeting rooms, library resource area, police storefront, game room, and aerobics and fitness areas. By utilizing the meeting rooms and computer room, the library becomes a good sized branch library.

The $7.4 million project is a great resource to the community and is integrated into the flowing landscape, providing architectural interest without compromising function. All of the major spaces are organized along a linear, clerestory circulation space, full of natural light. The large meeting room/banquet area and the gymnasium open to the north through large glass curtain walls, with views across the pond. Visual interest is amplified through the use of materials, vivid colors, provisions for art, and a large aquarium.

2007 Merit Award - Fort Worth AIA