A new all-season “courtyard” is now a hub of family-oriented activity, extending the camaraderie that has always distinguished this center of gracious club life in the nation’s capital.
When he decided to pursue a new Athletic Director position that he heard had opened at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Md. (suburban Washington, D.C.), Brendon McReady wasn’t surprised—and quite glad, as a former prep school swim coach and Aquatics Director at another club—to hear that the duties would largely involve direction of the swimming program.
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But McReady was also a bit surprised to hear that the position, which was actually an expansion of what had been the job of Head Swim Professional, would also encompass the development and direction of new sports Columbia was now also planning to provide for its membership. “Pools were certainly a natural fit,” he says. “But for things like skating, I wasn’t so sure how they’d be received at a club like Columbia, which was typical of most clubs in the East that are usually only active, from an athletic standpoint, from the spring through the fall.”
McReady was selected for the new position and started at Columbia in March of 2009. Despite admitting to some shaky, “weak-ankled” steps of his own as he tried to learn all that having skating as part of his duties would involve, it didn’t take long for him to see real evidence of just how good a fit that sport—along with many other new attractions offered when the club’s new Family Activities Center opened later in 2009—could be in such a family-oriented setting as Columbia’s.
In fact, with the center now having operated for a full year, McReady says there’s a new “typical” scene at Columbia this winter. “A core group of about 40 boys and girls who I rarely ever saw here before now come to the club almost every day after school, skates around their shoulders,” he reports. “They skate, they bowl, they swim in the indoor pool. They eat in our new snack bar and sometimes also have dinner here with their parents. On Friday nights, they hang out in our new Teen ClubHouse, while their parents have drinks or meet friends elsewhere in the club.
“We now have a legitimately busy winter season here,” says McReady. “And we’re still learning, almost by the day, about new things we can do to give our families—kids and their parents—even more reasons to say, ‘Let’s go to Columbia.’ ”
The Perfect Blend
The new Family Activities Center is a 35,000-sq. ft. design marvel, for a number of reasons. To begin with, there’s its well-thought-out functionality—including one large room, for the Teen ClubHouse, that was purposely oversized and intentionally kept underfurnished, with plenty of open space.
“Almost every other club I talked with that had a teen center said they ending up having to get rid of theirs because they’d made it too small and it got destroyed by the kids—but that it was also too small to do anything else with,” reports Columbia’s General Manager, Jim Troppman, CCM. “We made sure ours is big enough to give the kids enough room—and also so we can turn it into something else if needed.”
So far, the Columbia staff reports that the ClubHouse—which has an attendant when heavier use is anticipated, and includes ping pong, air hock
ey and foosball tables, arcade games, Wii and Playstation game consoles and a large projector screen—has drawn significant traffic on weekend nights, when it is kept open until 10. Planned activities such as Movie Nights and Girls’ Night Out—coordinated under Betsie Blanco, who holds another newly created position, Kids Activities Director—are organized to add to its appeal.
The new Family Activities Center also features striking spaces like the indoor pool, which during the day is filled with natural light that streams in through its large arched windows. “An indoor pool doesn’t have to be underground,” Troppman notes. “Our main [design] emphasis was on keeping it light, open, airy—and inviting.”
The most notable design achievement of the Family Activities Center, however, is the impeccable attention to detail that has made the new building blend in perfectly with Columbia’s 60,000-sq.ft. clubhouse, which will mark its 100th anniversary this year. Being able to make this match was certainly helped by how well the original building has been preserved, thanks to the expertise and efforts of an engineering staff led by Chief Engineer William Marlow.
A Plan Worth Sticking To
The space created between the old building and the new one is now known as the “courtyard.” This area features a new 25-meter, 8-lane competition pool, enlarged wading pool, additional deck space, new locker rooms, and a year-round “Poolside/Rinkside” snack bar. The year-round aspect (with a change to cold-weather menu items and drinks) comes from the popularity of Columbia’s new seasonal mini-skating rink, measuring 40’ x 60’, that is set up in the area after the pool is closed and covered. (Resurfacing of the smaller rink is handled by a special Zamboni attachment that fastens to a regular-sized John Deere tractor.)
The courtyard is literally the centerpiece of a Master Plan nearly 20 years in the making that was finally completed in 2009, at a total cost of $30.5 million. In addition to the features of the Family Activities Center and the courtyard, the plan included these other enhancements for Columbia’s 146-acre property (which was originally end-of-the-trolley-line farmland where Washingtonians went to get “country air,” but has long since been hemmed in on all sides by Beltway-induced development):
- An enhanced racquet sports complex, including new tennis courts built under a bubble in a building that also has an underground garage, to provide much-needed added parking.
- Within the original clubhouse, a new adult casual dining facility and new grill room, plus increased kitchen and storage space, and an additional passenger/service elevator.
The Master Plan for all of these improvements originally grew out of a membership survey conducted in the early 1990s for a newly created Long-Range Planning Committee. When it was first put to a vote in 1994, it fell 23 votes short of the required two-thirds majority. The Master Plan then fell dormant for over 10 years, before being revived with a more extensive scope and brought to the membership again. This time, in the spring of 2005, it passed—by one vote.
“Looking back, not having it pass the first time [in the ‘90s] was probably a blessing in disguise,” says Troppman. But that wasn’t because Troppman himself benefitted from getting more time to help determine what Columbia needed—in 1994, he had already been the club’s GM for 16 years. He got the job in 1978, just six months after arriving from the University Club of Washington, D.C. to be an Assistant Manager at Columbia—and then was baptized by fire when his predecessor as GM, former pro hockey player Gui Bordeaux, died suddenly.
Having the Master Plan hit the initial roadblock did provide needed time, Troppman feels, to create a better understanding among the membership for how Columbia’s facilities, programs and services needed to not only stay in step with, but in front of, how the club industry was changing. The 11-year gap between votes also allowed the scope of the plan to be enhanced and its details to be fine-tuned, in large part due to having a new architect with a keen understanding of Washington-area clubs, Mario Boiardi, get involved.
All of this, Troppman says, was critical to finally getting the membership (or at least, 24 more of them) to give the go-ahead for a project that would require an $11,500 Master Plan Assessment (payable over 12 years) from every active, full-status member. Just as importantly, he adds, it has been a key reason for how the results of the project have been so well-received, once it finally could be completed.
“The courtyard has a ‘flowing’ effect that now allows members and their families and guests to choose several types of activities or dining choices, all in close proximity to one another, on a year-round basis,” he adds. “This is especially comforting for families with children. Many times, parents may want to have a nice sit-down dinner with friends while, depending on the season, children will be more interested in some quick food at the Poolside/Rinkside Cafe and then a session in the pool or rink. The courtyard allows all of this to happen—it’s truly become a hub of family activities, throughout the year.”
Pleased to Meet You
The Columbia membership’s quick and full acceptance of all that’s been made possible by the Master Plan really isn’t surprising, given the way the club has always displayed a unique nature through its approaches to even the most traditional club sports, like golf and tennis.
Columbia has never had tee times—and as only its third Head Golf Professional in 100 years (following 1908 U.S. Open winner Fred McLeod and the legendary coach, Bill Strausbaugh), Bob Dolan has learned during the 16 years he’s held the position about the special value of that practice, not only for promoting the social aspects of the game, but also for fostering willing participation among members.
In addition to the new friendships that are created daily on Columbia’s course by the “matchmakers” (not starters) on Dolan’s staff, the same approach is carried through to even the most advanced levels of golf at the club. For the past six years, Dolan has organized a unique “pro-scratch-junior” tournament format that puts two of the club’s most promising young players into foursomes with staff pros and the top players from among the general membership.
“It’s like a mentoring program,” Dolan describes. “It’s a small tournament and there aren’t any big prizes or bragging rights involved. But I’ve never had one of our scratch players tell me no when I’ve asked them to participate.
“When the rest of the club hears how our best players are taking time to help our up-and-coming players,” he adds, “it’s hard for everyone else to not be anything but agreeable about whoever they’re matched up with for a regular round.”
Dolan now looks for more of that get-involved approach to show through in all aspects of Columbia’s operation. “We’ve had the vision to adapt the facilities and profile of the club so we can offer more things to our members,” he notes. “And thanks to the stability we’ve had for so many years under Jim [Troppman], we have a management team capable of implementing a wide variety of programs and services.
“All of this helps to get families fully engaged, and that’s the key to success in the club business. I think we’re ready to have a really good run into the future—and can even see the time coming where we’ll be able to offer one of the best, all-day sports camps to be found, any time of year.”
C&RB CLUB RECIPE Columbia’s Crowd-Pleasing Crab ClustersFranz Manser, who has been Columbia CC’s Executive Chef since 2003 and a fixture in its kitchen since 1985, is one of 100 top club chefs featured, along with some of their clubs’ most well-known recipes, in The Club Menu: Signature Dishes from America’s Premier Golf Clubs. Written by Scott Savlov and Jon Rizzi (and previewed by Savlov for attendees of C&RB’s inaugural Chef to Chef Conference in Las Vegas), the book was published in 2009 and also features recipes from C&RB Contributing Editor Jerry Schreck of Merion Golf Club, and other C&RB Chef to Chef Conference presenters (Thomas Pepka of Oakmont CC and Gerald Schmidt of Reynolds Plantation). At Columbia CC, Chef Manser is now the caretaker for a number of signature dishes that have been developed over the club’s storied history, including Lemon Pie Columbia and Mochaccino Ice Cream. The natural choice to be featured in the book was Columbia Crab Clusters, which first appeared on the club’s menu in the late 1990s, after a member serving as House Committee Chairman challenged the kitchen to create an alternative to standard Maryland-style crabcakes. The answer was a generous serving of inventively seasoned jumbo lump crabmeat (see recipe, below) that is baked, not fried, and served on toast rounds. “It fits with healthier eating habits,” notes Columbia’s GM, Jim Troppman. Chef Manser confirms that the clusters are “definitely the favorite” among many crabmeat items on Columbia’s menus. “We even serve it alongside filet mignon, veal and other dishes,” he says. “It’s light enough to serve as an appetizer, main course, or side dish.” Yield: 6 servings 2 tbsp. mayonnaise Procedure:
Submitted by Franz Manser, Executive Chef, Columbia Country Club, CHEVY CHASE, Md. |
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