To best serve the needs of their growing community, the City of Oak Park sought to design and construct a new Community Recreation Center on a one-acre property site located at Madison Street and Harvey Avenue. The full vision of the project was split into two phases. IMEG provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and technology engineering design services, as well as commissioning and construction administration support for Phase 1 of the project.

Phase 1 focused on the development of the main Recreation Center building, which houses community spaces, an indoor play zone, an e-sports room, a wellness suite, a fitness center, two-court gymnasium, a group fitness room, locker rooms, and a third-floor running track. Phase 2 was planned around and Aquatic expansion with lap, leisure, and therapy pools.

The entire building is heated and cooled by a high-efficiency variable refrigerant flow (VRF) air-cooled heat pump system with supporting ductwork distribution systems and terminal equipment. The building ventilation is served by a dedicated outdoor air handling unit heat pump with energy recovery wheel, providing building ventilation and exhaust. The building domestic hot water systems are served by high-efficiency heat pump water heaters. The entire building is all electric with no natural gas.

Electrical designs included emergency lighting plus interior and exterior luminaries with additional mandatory controls that include manual switching, automatic controls to reduce lighting levels, and day lighting controls. The building is serviced by a new main distribution system with 480/277V switchboard and digital power meter, as well as a new normal distribution system with 480/277V, 3-phase, 4-wire branch circuit panels on levels one and two.