New Recreation Center Blends Into Community

The first of three recreation centers for the Baldwin Park development in Orlando, FL, Enders Park was designed to fit into the residential character of the area it serves. The one-story building with its deep hipped roof was influenced by the Arts and Crafts style as well as Florida vernacular. It consists of two symmetrical wings joined by a central arcade topped with a cupola and clock.

Completed in May of 2003, the construction of the $1.5-million building took only three-and-a-half months. The north wing of the building houses an exercise room, a play area for children, the lady’s locker room, an entrance vestibule and storage rooms. The south wing contains the meeting hall, a kitchen, a locker room for men, its own entrance vestibule and storage rooms. Each wing provides 1,795 sq.ft. of heated space plus a 336-sq.ft. screened porch, for a total of 4,624 sq.ft. under the roof (3,560 sq.ft. heated).

“The challenge was to design something that was not the typical Mediterranean style often associated with Florida,” says Geoffrey Mouen, Principal, Geoffrey Mouen Architects, Celebration, FL. “Everyone thinks of Florida as having all Mediterranean architecture, but actually there is a mix here. We took a drive around Winter Park; saw buildings built in the teens; one was a simple white clapboard building with big overhangs. That inspired us, so we designed an Arts and Crafts-style building for the community, incorporating very steep roofs and the Adirondack camp colors.”

“The history behind the building is interesting” he adds. He points out that Baldwin Park is owned by The Baldwin Park Development Co., which is owned by the Pritkzer family of Chicago, IL. The Baldwin Park management team, headed up by Managing Director David Pace, came out of Celebration, FL, and many members have a background in traditional architecture. Mouen himself was the town architect for Celebration. “Part of our success goes to Pace and his team,” he says. “They inspired the high-quality traditional architecture of the project.” He adds that there was also a team of consultants, including architect David Skyles who contributed to the project. The general contractor was Wharton Smith Construction of Winter Garden, FL, and the landscape consultant was GAI Consultants-Southeast of Orlando, FL.

A recently developed New Urbanist community, Baldwin Park is located in downtown Orlando, FL, in an area formerly occupied by the Orlando Naval Training Center. The 2,000-acre site had been cut off from its neighbors with fences. The developers had to tear down the fences and the buildings, clean up the area and build a community that relates to the neighboring communities. Mouen points out that Baldwin Park has no gates and has more than 30 connections to the neighboring communities. In addition, 3,300 residential units and three community centers have been approved. “The community has alleys, a library, housing starting at under $200,000 and going up to $1 million and more than two million sq.ft. of retail building in the heart of the village.”

The center is situated on a large open site (4.3 acres) in the southwest corner of Baldwin Park so the designers had to address views in all directions. “This building is seen from all sides, so every façade needed to have some character to it,” says Mouen. “The building is designed with 360-degree architecture; in fact, some of the best views are from the rear.

“One of challenges was the horizontal nature of the building,” says Mouen. “We wanted to break up the building, introduce vertical elements and define the entrance. Two large screened-in porches on the front break up the horizontal massing while tall rectangular glass windows at the end of each wing accent the ends. They also let in a lot of light. These are stock windows from Marvin Windows & Doors of Warroad, MN, with simulated-divided lites. “We wanted projecting muntins to look authentic,” he explains. “Outside the windows are white, but inside they are various colors.

“Porches are a strong element in the community,” he adds, “so we followed that tradition with the screened-in porches on the front of the building. The back of the building looks very much like the front with the cupola and towering bay windows.”

An important element of the design is the entrance with an arch over double columns (supplied by Melton Classics, Lawrenceville, GA) and the cupola, which was built on site. Bay windows flank the entrance on both the front and back of the building. Built on site, the 14-ft. cupola brings the total height of the building to 37 ft. at that point. The overall length of the building is 140 ft.

All columns and moldings are made of synthetic materials and are catalog products, Mouen points out. “They are assembled to make them Classically correct. It is essential to have good quality products that are assembled properly. As Americans, we have traditionally used wood as a replacement for stone. Now we have PVC and other substitutes that can only be proven over time. I always wonder if Romans had had synthetic products, would they have used them? These materials don’t deteriorate and the PVC is said to be 99% recyclable.”

Exposed rafter tails add an interesting detail to the roofline and oculus windows in the pool changing rooms also break the horizontal line of the building. Simple copper finials on top of the cupola and at the peaks and hips of the roof add traditional styling to the building and also provide lightning protection.

“The eaves of the roof are raised in areas to create eyebrows,” Mouen explains. “There is a slight faceting in the roofline at those points, but it works well. The roofing is simple asphalt-fiberglass shingle,” he adds. “The key was to not be too dramatic. Green is a strong color that hearkens back to National Parks and Adirondacks. It gives it an Arts and Crafts look.”

The body of the building, meanwhile, is concrete to comply with fire codes and is covered with a cement siding. “This siding doesn’t mold or mildew or rot and it’s economical,” Mouen points out, “and it gives the look of clapboard. Natural woods rot out fast in Florida. We wanted to use conventional materials in this building, but we wanted to use them in imaginative ways.” To that end, the ¼-in.-thick siding was applied in alternating heights to add texture. “We noticed that there were many houses with alternating sizes of clapboard siding,” he says, “so we incorporated this idea into the recreation center. This variation adds texture to the building, especially since the siding is thin and won’t cast much of a shadow.”

No siding is used on the ends of the buildings with the big windows. “It’s all trim work,” Mouen explains. “This accentuates the bay windows and was inspired by Sir Edwin Lutyens. He was a big influence on this building,” he adds, noting the specific building that inspired the recreation center design was Lutyens’ Gate House for Plumpton Place in Sonning on Thames, East Sussex, England.

Another detail Mouen incorporated into the building was “to wrap the siding around the corners in the old-fashioned way,” without using corner boards at the corners of the building.

The Enders Park Recreation Center is first of three planned for Baldwin Park and all will be designed by Geoffrey Mouen Architects. Each one will serve approximately 1,000 of the 3,300 homes and each one will include a pool. The second center, however, will also house the Home Owners Association and will look like a traditional town hall with a front portico and four two-story columns and a pool building in the back. The third will be a simpler pool building, more in character with the first. – Martha McDonald

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Last Updated February 15, 2008