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Louis I. Kahn Bath House & Day Camp
Ewing Township, New Jersey
The famous Bath House and Day Camp designed by Louis I. Kahn is located at the Ewing Senior and Community Center, formerly known as the Trenton Jewish Community Center, NJ. In 1955 Kahn was commissioned to design a suburban community center on a 40-acre site. He developed a series of studies that explored the geometry of forms and proportional relationships for architecture and landscape. Partially realized with the Bath Houses and Pool facility constructed in 1956 and the Day Camp in 1957, Kahn’s geometric concepts for the landscape and community center buildings was unrealized. The Bath House project, with its four equal pavilions and related courts and pool was a breakthrough for Kahn and is an architectural touchstone. Heritage Landscapes studied in detail the archival collection of conceptual sketches and construction documents, gathering these rare documents into a chronological design report.
Today, this beloved facility is being adapted for daily use and intensive summer programs by the senior citizens and local residents of Ewing Township. Contemporary needs for parking, access and outdoor programming require resolution. Heritage Landscapes proposed a conceptual approach that respects Kahn’s realized work and draws on unrealized landscape concepts to shape a functional, aesthetically appropriate and sustainable landscape. Embracing the opportunity to organize the land uses in accordance with both functions and geometries, the proposed plans address the addition of a central green space, improved pedestrian movement patterns, reorganized drop-off, parking and handicapped access and enhanced stormwater management. The site master plan is proceeding as architectural preservation of the iconic Bath House and incorporation of a new snack bar begins. The Bath House and Pool area work was carried to design development level and improvements are underway for summer 2009 opening.
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