Lifeguard Shelter: Design-Build
UC San Francisco Mission Bay Community Center
Students at California College of the Arts designed and built a lifeguard stand for the UCSF Mission Bay Community Center. They were asked to provide more shelter from wind, rain, and sun than had been provided by a former off-the-shelf lifeguard stand, while maintaining visibility of the pool and deck.
The Lifeguard Shelter Prototype spans across and anchors to existing concrete planter walls on the rooftop pool deck, freeing up deck space taken up by the former stand. The shelter consists of four main components: a steel frame, a wood liner, a polycarbonate skin, and an aluminum jacket.
The aluminum jacket consists of fourteen laser-cut, gradient-perforated, folded-plate panels. Each panel has three stiffening brake-formed folds: one diagonal crease and two edge flanges. The panels are mounted via the edge flanges and connected together to act in unison against the site’s strong winds. Existing palms on the site inspired both the progressive scaling and the fold-produced stiffening of the panels.
The slatted wood liner and polycarbonate skin, together with perforations in the aluminum jacket, allow filtered light inside, while offering shelter from sun and wind.
Originally published 3rd Quarter 2007, in arcCA 07.3, “Comparing Awards.”
