In partnership with Shepherdsville’s local leaders, Luckett & Farley designed a holistic wellness center to enhance community amenities, creating a vibrant hub for recreation and connection in this growing Louisville suburb.
In close collaboration with QK4, we developed a dynamic landscape and site layout, with the outdoor aquatics area and slide towers serving as prominent landmarks that showcase the center's activities. The building is positioned off the road, in the corner of the parcel to align the two primary volumes with public vehicular entry axes, while also minimizing views of a neighboring strip mall to the north.
The central lobby, with a reception desk straight ahead, serves as the project’s nucleus, offering visibility into key areas like the pickleball courts, aquatics area, and restrooms. The main lobby, featuring soft seating and carpeted floors, creates a welcoming gathering space for the community.
The program includes a lobby gathering area, six indoor pickleball courts, an indoor competition pool, an outdoor recreational pool and splash park, multipurpose rooms for events, locker rooms with showers, six family restrooms, a remote police station, a concession stand with both lobby and exterior access, a multipurpose event venue, and an auxiliary office suite tucked behind the reception area.
Inclusivity was a driving force in the design, prioritizing accessibility with features such as a wheelchair ramp for pool access, six family-style restrooms for the splash park, and male, female, and gender-neutral locker rooms.
The aquatics venue is complex, with substantial mechanical requirements to handle the hot, humid, chlorine-rich environment. High-performance coatings, specialized ductwork, and enclosed electrical fixtures, are used to counter these effects. The pool area includes eight competition lanes and can accommodate up to 300 spectators.
The building's design incorporates strategically placed fins around the building, positioned to minimize glare on the water surface and enhance the structure's visual presence. translucent panels add an ethereal quality by allowing light to pass through. At night, the fins can be backlit in various colors, creating a lantern-like effect; for instance, the lights could be turned green on St. Patrick’s Day. Between the fins and the glass curtain wall of the aquatic venue, there’s a shaded porch for families near the splash park, offering shade, shelter during storms, and additional space for families to gather away from the pool.