Designing new community facilities presents an energizing opportunity to create meaningful, long-lasting value for residents—but it also brings a core challenge: how can these facilities serve as inclusive, multigenerational spaces that remain relevant and active over time? Too often, communities struggle to align design with the diverse needs of their populations and risk building spaces that resonate only with specific age groups or user types, leaving others behind and failing to maximize public benefit.
In a recent article for California Parks & Recreation, HMC Architects’ Design Principal Jon Orr explores how strategically designed spaces can serve diverse practical needs and inspire a wider sense of civic pride.
The traditional approach often leans on single-use facilities tailored for a narrow slice of the community. While these spaces may be successful for their intended users, they frequently sit idle outside of peak use and miss the opportunity to serve broader needs. Cities that focus on designing flexible, inclusive spaces can create a legacy facility that serves multiple functions and generations. When they emphasize multi-purpose design, facilities can deliver more hours of meaningful use per year, becoming vibrant, adaptable community assets. Key design fundamentals—such as abundant daylight, connection to outdoor spaces, and universal accessibility—are simple elements that will ensure appeal across demographics. Designing with families, seniors, and people with disabilities in mind signals that all residents are welcome and valued.
The Town of Yucca Valley Aquatic and Recreation Center: Best Practice in Action
The Town of Yucca Valley Aquatic and Recreation Center exemplifies this vision by embedding itself within the heart of the community’s recreational precinct. The 3.35-acre site features a single 37,200 SF single-story building with a natatorium, wet and dry multi-purpose rooms, offices, gymnasium, and support spaces. The intentional engagement to the adjacent Brehm Park facilities seeks synergy between public engagement on both sites. Designed to be an iconic presence in the community, the center will offer flexible aquatics programming, age-inclusive amenities, and a shared access model for surrounding communities.
Designing a multigenerational and inclusive facility was a core priority for the city from the beginning. Then, it became a question about implementation. How do we address the challenges that would help multigenerational families engage with the center safely and comfortably so there would be greater participation from the community? Input from a robust user group of policy makers, elected officials, and facilities and recreation program staff deeply embedded in the city’s programming helped to answer those questions. They clearly saw the needs of their community and guided the design to consider the ways flow and ease of use and supervision could make this space workable and inclusive.
Obstacles to Adoption
Sometimes, a narrow focus or the pressure to respond quickly to vocal advocacy groups can eclipse a broader understanding of community needs. Budget limitations also create pressure to simplify or scale back designs, reinforcing short-term or single-use thinking. However, well-designed flexible spaces can offset these challenges by achieving more with less—delivering higher impact per dollar by reducing the need for multiple separate facilities.
As communities grow and change, so do their recreation needs. While there’s no way to plan perfectly for every need, flexibility is key. Cities only get to build so many new capital projects in a year, so to build a facility that all neighbors will want to use is critical. In order to make the most of your efforts, the first step is to set the intention early, prioritizing flexibility, inclusivity, and long-term adaptability from the outset. Once this is established, ask questions; who will the space serve? How can we best implement their needs into this project?
Deep community engagement—especially with traditionally underserved populations—is critical to answering these questions and informing a responsive design. An idea from a once unheard voice at any point in the process can change the entire direction of a project. Allow time for outreach, initial visioning exercises, creativity, and iteration during the early stages and build in both design contingency and programmatic flexibility.
Taking a 360-degree view illustrates the potential connections in every direction and guides the design of a flexible and adaptable facility that neighbors can enjoy to its fullest extent for generations.
Read the full article in California Parks and Recreation Society Magazine.
