Department of General Services

6470 Dobbin Rd. #A
Columbia, MD 21045-4767

This project provides for the design and construction of a 33,000 net square foot community recreation center at 1700 April Lane in White Oak. This facility includes a gymnasium, exercise room, social hall, kitchen, senior/community lounge, arts/kiln room, game room, vending space, conference room, offices, lobby, restrooms, activity room, multi-use athletic court, and storage space.

The White Oak Recreation Center has the potential of achieving the environmental status of LEED Gold. This status indicates that the recreation center design and construction have produced a project that is energy conservative and environmentally friendly. The recreation center is surrounded on two sides by creeks and land sloping down to the creeks. The design team was aware that building on this sensitive site would take a great amount of planning so that the slopes down to the creeks, and the creeks themselves would not be harmed by the facility or during its construction. We determined that pervious pavement would offer the best way to keep the rain water from causing erosion, because it is most similar to the way that this land was before construction.

The building was built with recycled, and/or locally manufactured, non toxic materials. It also captures energy from the ground to heat and cool through the use of geothermal wells. There is a vegetated roof over the back two sections of the building that will reduce the amount of rain water flowing off of the roof. This lessens the impact of the building on the land as well as help to keep it cooler in the summer. The building has large expanses of windows to allow more daylight into the facility so that not only are there enjoyable views, there is a decreased need for artificial lighting.

White Oak Community Recreation Center Design Progress (March 2009)
White Oak Community Recreation Center Meeting Minutes (April 10, 2008)
White Oak Community Recreation Center Meeting Minutes (June 18, 2008)

Construction is on schedule at White Oak Community Recreation Center. The contractor is working on installing the acoustical ceiling tiles and different floor finishes. The heating and cooling systems are in their final stages of testing. The contractor has finished installing the pervious concrete drive lane and parking areas around the building. They are installing the section of concrete drive lane needed to support garbage trucks. The top soil has been put down around most of the site and the contractor has been planting trees and other plants. The asphalt surface for road and outside playing courts is complete. Site fencing is almost completely installed. The site sign is almost complete. Construction is scheduled to be complete winter of 2012.