Named after the famous football player Charley Taylor, who was born and raised in Grand Prairie, the Charley Taylor Recreation Center is a $4.5 million, approx. 10,000 SF building addition and remodel totaling 20,850 SF that sits adjacent to a splash park and elementary school. The existing building, built in 1951 and remodeled in the 1980’s, needed to be enlarged to accommodate a larger program and to relocate the youth boxing program, run by the police department, to the facility.

The new entrances are oriented towards the street and Lee Elementary next door. The new drop-off area to the west was designed to accommodate buses for their after-school program and leads to a courtyard entrance that helps maintain the existing clerestory windows of the gym. The control desk has good visibility of both entrances as well as the entire facility, while all the spaces throughout the facility have an abundance of natural light.

While the City of Grand Prairie has recently bult a large, new city-wide regional recreation center, they have also rebuilt and updated their existing smaller facilities in their older neighborhoods that serve lower income populations. The Charley Taylor Facility is the latest project to benefit from this effort. This has allowed the neighborhood residents, including the seniors and the youth, to have a facility nearby that they can easily travel to for programs and events.