The Leggett + Silver Spring Recreation & Aquatic Center (SSRAC)

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Project category

Multifamily Affordable,
Cultural & Community

Project market

Architecture,
Interior Design

Project location

Silver Spring, Maryland

Date of completion

2024

Client

Housing Opportunities Commission of Montgomery County, Montgomery County,
Lee Development Group

Partners

Costello Construction,
Rodgers Consulting, Inc.,
OCULUS: Landscape Architecture + Urban Design,
EM Structural,
AHA Engineers

About the Project

The Leggett, named in dedication to former Montgomery County Executive Isiah “Ike” Leggett, is the latest phase of the ESquare development to wrap up completion. This innovative and exquisite building was designed to revolutionize senior living by merging health, wellness, arts, entertainment, technology and sustainability under one roof. Its one-of-kind 62+ housing community offers 267 high-end, luxury and affordable 1-bedroom apartment units each equipped with top-of-the-line, high-end finishes and appliances.

Levels B1 through Level 3, houses the 133,000 SF Silver Spring Recreation and Aquatic Center (SSRAC). The facility includes a natatorium with multiple swimming pools, a gymnasium, exercise and weight room spaces, movement and dance studios, multipurpose activity rooms, public use and social spaces, and a culinary arts kitchen.

Additionally, the Holy Cross Senior Source and Primary Care Center, owned and operated by Holy Cross Hospital, occupies a 7,000 SF suite on the 2nd floor. The Primary Care portion provides primary medical care, physical exams, and chronic disease management. The suites include exam rooms, consultation rooms, and medical support spaces.

Project Overview

This 420,000 SF development redefines the concept of “community” for the entire D.C. metro region, comprising multiple projects under one umbrella: senior living housing for residents with a mixture of affordable units and market-rate units and a 134,000 SF regional recreation and aquatic center, as well as a 7,500 SF health clinic.
This project is about the real compassion architecture can symbolize and create in a planned environment that is, in equal parts, humane, healthy, and beautiful. All of it comes together as a set of crucial amenities and services centered on art, technology, healthcare, and sustainability.
Its vision, which was Phase 2 in redeveloping this existing urban block, remained on anchoring downtown Silver Spring as a walkable and vibrant neighborhood with access for all and opportunities for everyone to actively engage, learn, and support their own health and well-being, all within an “embrace” to unify a community spectrum of mixed incomes from low income and above.
In keeping with the project vision, we established a housing solution with a much-needed community center for everyone of all ages in this portion of the county that brings people together whilst ensuring that our most vulnerable neighbors – those who are our elders – remain an integral part of the community fabric always and empowered to afford to do so.
The project demonstrates a forward-thinking approach to urban ecological integration through a comprehensive system of green roofs, planted terraces, and on-structure greenscapes, transforming the building into a vertical extension of the landscape.
This project represents a true P3 – public private partnership – involving the owner and a private developer committed to delivering a mixed-use redevelopment with a dynamic housing solution and state-of-the-art community center along with the inclusion of a leading healthcare system via an onsite, full-service clinic.
This project demonstrates a holistic commitment to the occupants’ health and well-being, integrating high indoor air quality standards with natural light, open space, and restorative design elements throughout both the residential and recreational components.
This project’s due diligence and extensive planning/design was a process that spanned 10 years, inclusive of the development’s initial and final phases – The Leggett + Silver Spring Recreation & Aquatic Center (SSRAC) were delivered as part of Phase 2. Working closely with owner executives and officials, as well as current residents and the community at large, various instances of engagements and solicitation of feedback were incorporated into the planning and design processes.
The unifying spirit throughout the design team’s efforts was to prove and bring forward a solution that actualized how “anything is truly possible.”
True to the project’s overarching “north star,” The Leggett + SSRAC has transformed this existing development into an active, healthy, beating heart of downtown Silver Spring and this specific part of the county.