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Long ago Venture
realized the benefits of water therapy for
people with developmental disabilities.
For years, using a temporary pool,
individuals bound to their wheel chairs, too
weak to move limbs, experienced what Kathleen
Lukens the Executive Director and Founder of
Camp Venture eloquently calls the "incredible
lightness of being".
The buoyancy of water gives partial
mobility to some and enabled others to almost
walk.
It was this experience that inspired
Camp Venture to embark on a mission to provide
this environment year round.
The Venture Pool Complex is a 7500 square foot
addition to Venture's Day Treatment Center,
located in Sparkill NY.
The facility provides two pools, locker
and shower areas, individual changing rooms
and a program space.
Two pools, and the building plan, will
permit flexibility in temperature and program.
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The limited budget did
not limit the ability of Michael Shilale to
design a functional plan, maintain a high
level of quality construction, and create an
addition that harmonizes with the existing
building.
The new Therapeutic
Pool Building has a stained glass
representation of the Venture logo in a
circular window adorning the natatorium.
A butterfly, at first flight; a symbol
of the metamorphosis being made every day by
the individuals Camp Venture serves.
The design effort was
to attempt to create a building that not only
functions well, but
also imbues in the architecture a sense
of significance with what happens here -
enriching the experience for those who come to
serve and be served - and enhancing the
specialness of this environment.
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