Fitness, Flexibility, and Suspension: An Aquatics Facility on Washington, D.C.'s Southwest Waterfront

To create a legible building, the structure's form must describe and reinforce the mission of the organization that inhabits it. This proposal for a regional competition, training and recreational aquatics facility demonstrates ideas of physical fitness through an exploration of muscles, cables, tension, joints, and bones. The building is part of a larger urban strategy for redeveloping the Washington Channel waterfront in Southwest Washington, D.C. Early images of transformed beach glass, thread, and basswood generated the inspiration for the basic architectural components: the wall, the columns, and the suspended jewels. The following document gives definition to the basic elements.