Highlands Park Aquatic Center

As part of a master plan, the City of Westerville decided to replace its declining, 30-year-old municipal pool facility. The former pool suffered from not only deterioration of its buildings and infrastructure, but also from a constrained layout of its amenities and poor relationships between its different functions. Safety for its patrons was a major concern. Instead of following a traditional municipal pool design approach, the design team sought to blend the project with the surrounding wetlands and create a natural environment that fused with the surrounding landscapes. In order to minimize the project’s impact on the existing natural habitat, a series of sustainable measures were used throughout the site – specifically, rainwater collection was implemented through green roofs, rain gardens, retention ponds, bios wales and pervious concrete. The project amenities include an eight lane competition pool with diving well, a large leisure pool, a zero entry toddler pool, small and large spray grounds, a lazy river and two 30 foot water slides. The four main structures on site include the main entry administration building, bathing house, concession stand and a pool mechanical building.