Franklin Park Pool House

The homeowners wanted to create an outdoor living space complete with a pool for their three daughters who swim competitively. In addition, they wanted the space to provide an ideal gathering and entertaining area for family and friends, as well as improved landscaping overall.

The idea to add a pool house to the project came up in initial discussions with the landscape architect, who then involved the design build firm. Once there was a built element, the design build firm took over the architectural design and, with the added level of project complexity, became the general contractor of the project. The new pool house structure totals approximately 2,500-square feet leaving around 28,800-square-feet of yard including hardscaping.

The landscape architect’s hardscape concept had a contemporary aesthetic, so the design build firm proposed a pool house that embraced that same aesthetic, departing from the more traditional architectural style of the main house. Inspirational design elements for the pool house included clean lines, a darker pallet with warming elements, a metal roof, a board-formed-concrete fireplace and open areas with post-and-beam framing. All exterior pool house materials were specifically selected to be low-maintenance.

This project was scheduled during COVID, so a major challenge was coordinating the pool house build with the pool contractor, who was extremely busy as pools were a very popular home project request around this time. And although the pool was not part of the design build firm’s contract, much of the pool house work was dependent on the pool contractor meeting project milestones, which were continuously missed. The design build firm addressed this challenge by unofficially taking on a project management role with the pool contractor and taking over responsibility for communication and updates to the homeowners.

Another unique challenge was the pressure the design build firm placed on themselves as the homeowners were close family friends. Never wanting to fall short of any client expectations, this was especially the case when the homeowners are family friends.