Practice, continuing our long history of collaboration with Covina Community Development leadership, has designed and recently begun construction on the adaptive reuse of the City of Covina’s historic Vita-Paktorange warehouses into a new community recreation village.
Located along a rail line and adjacent to a Metrolink station, the long linear site celebrates the City’s history of industry and transportation while introducing much-needed community space for active social connection.
After close study of the mid-century fruit packing warehouses, our design team developed a renovation strategy that addressed seismic strengthening, systems upgrades, and accessibility improvements. The approach ensured that the new program spaces aligned with project needs and allocated budget.
The design transforms the eastern warehouse into a gymnasium complex and the western warehouse into community learning and service spaces. Large exterior areas between and around the buildings are being reimagined as community amenities, including rock climbing walls, a dog park with shared use for police canine training, a memorial history walk, and native planting gardens.
Now under construction, the recreation village will advance Covina’s broader program of community and economic revitalization, extending outward from the historic downtown core. The new facility will create not only a local resource but also a regional destination for the greater San Gabriel Valley.
