JOYNER PARK COMMUNITY CENTER

Wake Forest, North Carolina

Carroll Joyner Park is a beloved community asset and popular location for recreation and events in Wake Forest, featuring walking trails, historic structures, and an outdoor amphitheater. As part of phase two of the park master plan, the Wake Forest Parks, Recreation, & Cultural Resources Department partnered with Clark Nexsen to design the new Joyner Park Community Center.

Offering indoor recreation and gathering space for the community, the new facility includes a gymnasium, indoor track, lobby and reception space, a large multipurpose room, a dance studio, teaching kitchen, locker rooms, and new office space for the PRCR Department. A new, natural play area and public plazas offer engaging outdoor space for both children and adults.

In a preservation effort to remove as few trees as possible, the design team optimized the site location to balance cut and fill as well as overall land disturbance. The facility is also outfitted with a cistern that captures rainwater from the roof through rain chains to form a unique feature that enhances the natural play focus of the design. Using a simple palette of materials that align with the park’s rural context, the building’s exterior features cementitious siding, aluminum storefront, thin set stone veneer, and a standing seam metal roof. A “front porch” area links the facility with the park’s greenway system and overlooks the meadow, reinforcing connectivity with the outdoors. The porch and vertical fins also provide shading on the east side for optimal energy efficiency. In lieu of piping down to the existing pond, a new, onsite stormwater capture system was created.