San Gabriel Valley Aquatics Center

La Puente, California

Gruen Associates provided a conceptual design of a new Aquatics Center and surrounding open space to be integrated into the Allen Martin Park for the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation. The proposed project site is an approximately three-acre field in La Puente, California. The field is owned by the adjacent Temple Academy Elementary School, touches Allen J. Martin Park to the northeast and borders residential to the west. It is proposed that this site be acquired in the future from the Temple Academy and joined to Allen J. Martin Park to create this new community amenity. The block is defined by East Giordano Street, North California Avenue, East Temple Avenue and Evanwood Avenue.

The new Aquatics Center is envisioned as an approximately 10,000-SF structure with locker rooms, training center, classrooms and two competition-size pools. Allen J. Martin Park has parking lots accessible via North California Avenue and East Giordano Street, but as these will not be convenient access points for the proposed project, a new “green” parking lot with permeable paving and bioswale features that can service the Aquatics Center as well as a future Performing Arts Center to the east is proposed. A new public plaza and pedestrian walkways for the Aquatics Center will provide an entry point and connections to the existing uses in the park. The project will also connect to the sidewalk along East Temple Avenue to provide pedestrian and cyclist access points from the community. Other amenities include a community pollinator garden with pedestrian walkways and additional bioretention area to infiltrate detained runoff from the new structures.