City of Austin Colony Park Aquatic Facility

The Colony Park Aquatic Facility facility, located in Austin, TX, is designed for family-focused synergy in water recreation and community gathering. It includes outdoor pools (recreation/leisure pool and recreation/lap pool with 1-meter diving board), a water slide, conditioned community multi-purpose/classroom space, support spaces, and pedestrian connectivity. Art-in-Public spaces will commission a local artist to develop art for the project. Sustainability will be achieved by meeting the Aquatics Master Plan for SITE Silver Certification.

A robust community engagement process was conducted throughout the design phases for the Colony Park Aquatic Facility. Planned through extensive involvement from the community stakeholders, the design of the structures was derived to take advantage of passive cooling and lighting. The conceptual form was driven by the existing bird motifs in the park. The roof floats above the spaces in an angular butterfly roof. In the non-conditioned spaces, the space is enclosed with a light mesh to maximize cross ventilation in the bathhouse. The use of translucent roof panels allows for natural light to diffuse through the space minimizing the need for additional lighting. The position of the building was chosen to maximize views of the downtown skyline beyond the rolling hills of northeast Austin.