Lake Oswego Recreation & Aquatics Center (LORAC)

★★★A J

Good gym/rec center in terms of functionality. The equipment works and is clean, the gym court is taken care of, etc. But the schedule of the gym is...peculiar to say the least. There are 5 different kinds of pickleball slots taking up the lions share of the schedule--nearly 20 hours of total weekly court time. Pickleball Basics? Pickleball "Beyond The Basics"? Pickleball Pro? Pickleball for Teens? And, of course, open-play pickleball which takes up 10+ hours of the weekly schedule. Volleyball takes up a more modest 6 hours of the weekly schedule. One might think "well, its a basketball court, so surely there is time in the schedule for that activity similar to the time set aside for pickleball or volleyball." Wrong! On par with fencing(????), there is a single 1.5 hour block for basketball on the basketball court. One might hear this disconcerting news and think "well, at least the court can be freely used during unscheduled times." True! Except for those who are (1) not a child, (2) not retired, (3) are otherwise not free in the middle of the day. If you are an adult that works a typical work day, the times that you would be able to enjoy using the court for something other than pickleball are in the middle of the work day. Otherwise, its a decent spot.

★★★★Mike

My only quibble is the tiny, shallow lockers, but since there are many, I use two. Some want TVs in the weight room ... please don't. A nice, screenless refuge in a world plastered with screens is great, and I love it that there's little to no music. There's no way to please everyone when it comes to music, so no music is a good approach. Did the balance pads break?

★Dennis tang

The gym schedule is made with no common sense. Most people work from 9-5, and going to the gym after work/changing takes 30 minutes. SO making wheelchair basketball 6:30-8:30 makes it not worth going before or after. There's no reason to not make it 7-9pm, no one's going to go in at 8:30pm to play until 9pm. For some reason, HS basketball takes up noon-9pm on Saturdays, the primary time people don't have work. They have 6 hours of pickleball on Fridays so that's unusable too. One time they had 0 people playing backyard games and 12 people playing basketball and they refused to put down 1 extra basket on the backyard games side. There was 30 minutes left on scheduled time. 50% of the time I want to use the gym, it's occupied. All of this would be fine if they hadn't packed the schedule AFTER I committed to a 3-month membership.

★★★★J Miller

Very nice facility. Very clean. Ventilation is helpful with many fans. Far from regular routes traveled . Nice scenery during the day.

★★Beth Olson

After years of planning, the Lake Oswego Recreation and Aquatics Center has finally opened. I visited the open house today and left a little disappointed. It’s modern and beautiful with fresh paint and lots of art installations to come, but as far as a recreation center, I was underwhelmed. There is only one smallish sized room for fitness classes, and the floors look to be hard laminate, not wood floors. There is not much in the Strength room, minimal cardio machines (7 treadmills, 2 ellipticals), very few weight machines. It feels more like a hotel fitness room. No TVs. The competition pool should work for high school meets but the small amount of seating there is pretty far away from the pool lanes. No diving boards in the recreational pool, and again it’s a small space. I can see this pool getting overwhelmed with kids very quickly. There are literally no places for parents to sit while their kids play in the pool. The locker rooms have rinse-off shower stalls and maybe 2 actual showers. No steam rooms or dry saunas. There is one small jacuzzi spa that serves the entire facility. Not clear how lockers are locked, no signage. The locker room floors are hard concrete, with no mats and no tile. The gym has room for 1 pickleball court and 1 volleyball court with lines in every color all over the floor. Not sure how that is going to work. The views off the patio to the lovely 9 hole golf course are nice, but they could use some kind of healthy snack/coffee shop there. Overall, I was surprised this wasn’t planned more robust to meet the needs of the community. It seemed to me like a missed opportunity, with a lot of frosting and very little cake.