Reservoir Park and Recreation Center Open in Washington, DC

A woman speaking a podium with balloons in the background. — Washington mayor Muriel Bowser delivering remarks at the grand opening of the Reservoir Park Recreation Center.

The recreation center at Washington, DC’s new Reservoir Park is now open.

The Reservoir Park Recreation Center is the first building to come online in a long-envisioned redevelopment of the historic McMillan Sand Filtration Site, a 25-acre water treatment facility dating to 1905. Decommissioned in the 1980s, the McMillan site is now being redeveloped as a mixed-use neighborhood while preserving elements from its industrial past.

Through a design-build effort led by Gilbane, Quinn Evans guided the documentation and delivery of the recreation center. This new neighborhood asset includes fitness facilities, an indoor pool, and community spaces.

A sign reading "DC Department of Parks and Recreation" in front of a building. — The newly opened Reservoir Park Recreation Center.

The surrounding Reservoir Park, designed by Rhodeside Harwell | RHI, and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects, provides six acres of public space and features a playground, splash pads, an amphitheater, and a restored historic fountain. Visitors can peer into preserved sand bins, filtration cells, and other structures from the site’s days as a water treatment facility.

Decades in the making, the park and recreation center are the result of a site master plan and design by Perkins Eastman DC and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects. Quinn Evans served as the architect of record.

Washington mayor Muriel Bowser presided over the Reservoir Park Recreation Center’s grand opening on June 15. Mayor Bowser called the McMillan redevelopment “not only a transformational project for Ward 5, but for all of the District of Columbia.”

Watch the grand opening ceremony here.