Gauche Aquatic Park

An aquatics park creates a new civic center

Gauche Aquatic Park fulfilled a long-standing community vision for Yuba City and created a cornerstone for the city’s recreation program. The redesigned 10-acre community park and aquatic center created a vital center for civic activities and stimulated commercial development in the city’s downtown area.

At the time, Gauche Park needed a significant renovation and was greatly underutilized and the city’s only existing public pool was scheduled to close. The new facility features a 10-lane, 25-yard competitive and recreational swimming and diving pool; a two-lane warm-up and swim lesson pool; a zero-depth-entry children’s activity pool; a 24-foot-high water slide tower with receiving pool; and a 10,000-square-foot recreation building with multipurpose, lifeguard and pool equipment rooms. The park’s landscape design includes two thematic playground areas and a community garden. The layout is integrated with outdoor basketball courts, children play areas, plazas, courtyards, an amphitheater, a picnic area, parking and passive park space,
designed to promote community engagement, as well as health and wellness.

The park incorporates sustainable features such as bioswales, shade trees to reduce the heat-island effect, permeable pavement, drought-tolerant plantings and the use of recycled materials. Other sustainable, energy-saving and life-cycle oriented project features include durable, low-VOC materials, efficient LED and fluorescent lighting systems, low-flow plumbing fixtures and high-efficiency mechanical building and pool systems with active controls.