Keohane Pool Spectator Seating
Wellesley College is a private liberal arts institution for women, with its current form designed in 1902 by landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmstead Jr. It boasts a stunning 500-acre campus with open meadows, wooded hills, and a private lake. KMA has been a key partner to Wellesley College’s Campus Planning and Facilities Department for nearly a decade, serving as Architect of Record on some design projects while helping address various accessibility challenges of the hilly campus and its many historic buildings.
The college’s Keohane Pool was built in the 1980s, before the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) began requiring new facilities to meet accessibility standards. Very much an artifact of its era, the building features clerestory lights illuminating the large interior volume, which is given shape by strong geometric forms adorned with painted metal rails and glossy ceramic tile. The mezzanine was already served by an elevator, but the bleachers were down several steps from the elevator landing and lacked wheelchair seating.
KMA was tasked with improving accessibility in the mezzanine while maintaining the original design intent. The design team replaced the stairs with a ramp in the same location, matching the distinctive 1980s material choices of the original design, and created two platforms for wheelchair spaces plus room for companion seats. Those platforms, which are wholly integrated into the existing bleacher seating, feature tempered-glass guard rails that ensure clear sight lines to the competition area while also preserving the overall quality of light in the space and echoing the strong, geometric volumes of the remainder of the building.
Photos by Jarred Stanley
