Client:

City of Camden​

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Photography:

Nathanial Lieberman

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Upon receiving a grant from the Green Acres Program the city of Camden called for the construction of a pool and community facility to be called the Isabel Miller Community Center.  The existing outdated pool complex was demolished, converting the one-acre site into a local children's park, and consolidating the year-round recreational activities into one facility on the twelve-acre site.
The first phase of the project consisted of a new outdoor pool facility with swimming, diving and wading pools, and a community building which would provide the services of a branch library, a social services center, mayor's annex and a community meeting room.  The second and final phase of the project consisted of the health center, a one- story addition completing the Isabell Miller Community Center.
Situated on the diagonal to a street comer (site plan above), the complex creates a much needed focal point for the community, while simultaneously acting as a gateway to the outdoor pool facility.  The building is preceded by a public plaza which begins a discourse with the community.  This landscaped plaza is bound by two opposing elements, the community center's curved masonry wall and the health center's rectilinear masonry wall.  From this nexus, an elongated ramp projects out to bisect the corner connecting building and community.
Fulfilling the city's desire to consolidate its various community services into one structure, the Isabell Miller Community Center's final result is a new facility which operates year-round and supports a full- time staff.