Leawood Aquatic Center + Bathhouse

Leawood, Kansas

The Leawood Aquatic Center includes a 50 meter competition pool, slides, toddler pools and a variety of other aquatic amenities. The existing bath house was constructed in the 1970’s, renovated in the late 1990’s, and has reached the end of its useful life. The City of Leawood engaged SFS Architecture in the summer of 2020 to design a new bath house facility to address contemporary needs and provide expanded multi-purpose four season space for meetings, parties and other small gatherings.

The aquatics amenities remain unchanged, however the existing pool mechanical room was identified as a space that could be salvaged to maximize the project budget. The new bath house facility incorporates the existing pool mechanical and electrical service room spaces and includes new pool filters to replace the aged sand filtration system that existed.

New bath house changing facilities include men’s and women’s shower rooms, four family changing rooms and deck mounted showers. A breezeway entry separates the seasonal changing facility from a fully conditioned building that contains concessions, guard and pool management spaces. Visibility and circulation were key considerations of the new layout and provide for efficiency of staffing and entry oversight.

The new multi-purpose building is situated just to the west of the concessions building and a large trellis connects the two buildings. This year round multi-purpose space will serve as a rental area for birthday parties and meetings for both pool and general use. Natural lighting and ventilation were incorporated as appropriate into the design of a dynamic assemblage of new facilities that selected low-maintenance, durable building materials.

A new bike-walk “hub” was also designed as part of this project and is being constructed further west and will serve users of the park and Indian Creek Trail system. The bike-walk hub includes a shelter, informational kiosk, seating, drinking fountain, bike service station and a misting station to cool off on hot summer days.