The Mary Cali Dalton Recreation Center is a new 65,000-square-foot New York City Parks recreation facility on an existing surface-parking lot facing New York Harbor and located adjacent to the Robert Moses landmarked Lyons Pool Complex in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. Dalton Recreation Center responds to the needs of this community by offering them a galvanizing identity destination. Inspired by the cultural history of its site in Tompkinsville, Staten Island, known as the ‘watering place’ of New York, where weary travelers got fresh water and rejuvenation after a long journey, Dalton Recreation Center is conceived as a ‘garden of wellness’. It is a facility that inspires a total body, mind, and spirit wellness in its architectural expression and experience. Every room is filled with northern daylight, natural northwest prevailing breezes, and a strong visual connection to the waterfront, the harbor, and the dramatic views of lower Manhattan. A community Welcome Garden at the site entry invites visitors into the recreation center, acting as a spatial extension of the Tompkinsville Waterfront that makes the Dalton Recreation Center and Lyons Pool Complex a civic destination within a larger public park along the harbor. Its massing gracefully terraces away from the Lyons Pool complex in deference to its scale and offers a low maintenance drought and marine resistant landscaped roof garden for recreational programming, contemplation, and reflection while offering views across the bay. The raised composition resolves a challenging tight site set between a severe flood zone, the MTA railroad, and bridge abutment. The on-site energy generating all-electric facility approaches Net Zero operation.
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