Leawood Aquatic Center

The Leawood Aquatic Center’s existing bath house was constructed in the 1970’s, renovated in the late 1990’s, and had reached the end of its useful life in the 2020’s. The City of Leawood engaged SFS Architecture in the summer of 2020 to design a new bathhouse that addressed contemporary needs and provide multi-purpose, four-season spaces for meetings, parties and other small gatherings.

The new bathhouse includes 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 existing 50-meter competition pool, toddler pools, slides and other aquatic 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 bathhouse incorporates the existing pool mechanical and electrical service room spaces and includes new pool filters to replace the aged sand filtration system that existed.

Situated just to the west of the concessions building and connected by a large trellis is a new multi-purpose building. This year-round space serves as a rental area for birthday parties and meetings for both pool and general use. Natural lighting and ventilation was incorporated into the design of both facilities, in addition to low-maintenance, durable building materials.

A new bike-walk hub was also designed to the west of the buildings and will serve users of the adjacent park and Indian Creek Trail system. The hub includes a shelter, informational kiosk, seating, drinking fountain, bike service station, and a misting station to cool off on hot summer days.