New Aquatics Center

The Southeast Missouri State campus had lacked swimming facilities since the closure of Parker pool as part of budget cutbacks in 2003. University officials felt that the opening of the Aquatic Center would increase the marketability of SEMO to potential students, since all other universities of the region have equivalent aquatics facilities and activities as part of their extracurricular offerings. Hastings+Chivetta was hired to design this 30,068 SF addition to the existing Student Recreational Center, which was also designed by the firm. The new natatorium includes a leisure pool and six-lane lap pool, locker rooms, offices, and a wet classroom. The leisure pool features a bouldering wall, a zip-line, a water slide, water basketball and volleyball, two lap-lanes, a 20-person whirlpool, and a “bubble-bench” overlooking windows that frame the pool’s vanishing edge.