A suburban swimming pool is not a setting where one expects to find distinctive architecture. Poolside changing facilities can be the most mundane of structures.
But a new bathhouse in Anne Arundel County is noteworthy because of the famous architect who designed it and the larger development of which it is a part.
The Community of Russett's bathhouse, a $500,000 structure that will be dedicated Saturday, is one of the few buildings in Maryland designed by internationally acclaimed architect Charles W. Moore.
Mr. Moore, 67, received the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1991. He has a reputation for creating buildings imbued with a sense of whimsy and delight. His works include the Piazza d'Italia in New Orleans, Kresge College in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sea Ranch in northern California, and the Beverly Hills Civic Center.
The bathhouse is the first in a series of public buildings that Mr. Moore's Austin, Texas, office, Moore-Andersson Architects, has been commissioned to design for Russett in collaboration with Grimm and Parker of Calverton.
Located just off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway at Route 198, the 2-year-old community is already home to 350 households -- slightly more than a 10th of the 3,000 families expected to live there by the late 1990s.
The other public buildings include a community center, health club, day care center and a branch library that will be part of Anne Arundel County's system. They will frame a courtyard that will serve as the town square for the 613-acre community.
Russett's initial developer, Curtis F. Peterson, hired Mr. Moore and Grimm and Parker as part of a plan to create architecturally distinctive public buildings for the community, where homes range in price from $80,000 to more than $300,000. His goal was to put a stamp of design refinement on the project and set it apart from its competitors in the Odenton-Crofton area.
Mr. Moore said he agreed to work for Russett because Mr. Peterson was an old friend. He added that Russett was one of the first residential communities on which he had worked since he and others designed Sea Ranch starting in the 1960s.
He asked Grimm and Parker to serve as associate architect because principal Stephen Parker is a former student.
Since Mr. Peterson retired more than a year ago, the development team has been headed by Lovell Land Inc. and Coscan/Adler Limited Partnership. For them, and the residents of Russett, completion of the bathhouse is a milestone.
