Special Editorial Focus: Higher Education Athletic Facilities
Our nation’s colleges and universities are experiencing a building boom. In every issue of School Construction News we report on new satellite campuses doting the landscape, expensive academic buildings designed by famous architects, comfortable new dormitories, and everything in between.
With this issue’s special editorial section focused on higher education athletic facilities-including stadiums, gymnasiums, and recreation centers-we highlight projects within a growing segment of the construction industry that has, according to some estimates, accounted for nearly $4 billion during the last decade.
In this section you’ll find several recent projects-designed, built, or remodeled on campuses throughout the country.
Princeton University
Princeton University’s original Palmer Stadium, built in 1914, was modeled after the U-shaped stadium architecture of ancient Greece. When administrators decided to replace the outdated facility, they hired New York City-based Rafael Vinoly Architects P.C., a firm that retained the classic U-shaped design. The materials, however, were more modern and included liberal use of precast concrete components fabricated by Metromont Prestress of Greenville, S.C.
The new stadium features a 1,600-foot-long outer structure, made of precast concrete panels, containing the ticket office, concession stands, and restrooms. An inner structure has two tiers of seating for 27,800 spectators. The lower level has cast-in-place seating on three sides and precast risers at the open end. The second seating level consists of “see-through” precast concrete risers that appear to float above the lower seats. Says project designer Chang Li Lin, “this project gave us an opportunity to achieve this rare and satisfying combination where architecture and structure become one. It’s a good way to design a stadium project.”
The Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute thought so too and awarded it the Harry H. Edwards Award for advancing the technology of precast concrete.
Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College, a private woman’s college in South Hadley, Mass., is well known for its athletic programs. Unfortunately, its sports and dance complex, Kendall Hall, wasn’t keeping pace-the facility was too small and needed upgrading. Cutler Associates, the design-build firm working on the project, interviewed administrators and students to help determine the scope of the 85,000-square-foot remodeling project.
Recently completed, the facility now features five reconfigured squash courts and a new stairway that connects the court level to a viewing balcony where classes and tournaments can be observed. The building also has an enlarged weight room with skylight wells that finally bring natural light to this lower level space.
The project team also enlarged the athletic training room, added administrative offices, installed new lighting systems, repainted, and added a new long-jump pit and pole-vault cup to the field house.
University of Maryland
A new sports arena under construction on the College Park campus of the University of Maryland will replace Cole Field House and hold up to 17,000 spectators. Construction on the $101 million Comcast Center began during summer 2000 and is expected to conclude in fall 2002. The Maryland Stadium Authority has been working with Ellerbe Beckett as project architect and Gilbane/Smoot as construction manager.
University of Illinois
The new 58,000-square-foot athletic center for the University of Illinois at Chicago features two NCAA regulation-size basketball courts, a strength and conditioning center, a sports medicine center, and a human performance lab.
Designed by Mekus Studios, the facility converted an existing ice rink facility into support and administrative space.The $8 million building has consolidated the previously scattered athletic department in one location.
Lenoir-Rhyne College
McCrorie Center, a 33,500-square-foot learning resources complex on Lenoir-Rhyne College’s Hickory, N.C. campus, will be home to both the college’s allied healthcare and athletic programs. College officials say students from the sports medicine program will practice the methods and techniques they learn by treating injured players. The building is near Lenoir-Rhyne’s football training and equipment areas.
The McCrorie Center’s first floor will include coaches’ offices, football locker rooms, hydrotherapy facilities, a weight training room, a training and rehabilitation room, and clinical areas. Locker and training facilities also will be available for 13 intercollegiate sports.
The second and third floors will serve the sports medicine, nursing, and occupational therapy programs. In addition to classrooms and study areas, plans call for a patient care laboratory with exam rooms, as well as labs for pediatrics and human anatomy. A fitness facility also will be available to the entire campus community.
The facility, designed by Little & Associates Architects, is named after Hank McCrorie, a 1960 graduate from the college. He and his wife, Bernice, donated $3.4 million toward the building’s construction.
St. Francis College
St. Francis College in New York City’s Brooklyn borough is planning a three-phase, roughly $100 million construction project that is expected to be completed in 2011. The first phase of the project designed by Halpern Architects includes the athletic center-and the school’s urban setting makes the best place to locate the new center directly on top of the existing facility. Currently, the college has a full-size gym, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a fitness center, and a sports medicine center. Construction will focus on adding a new, multi-purpose gym on top of the existing structure and enhancing the current space, including adding sidewalk-level viewing windows to the building. Also part of this upwardly mobile project are new administration offices overlooking the basketball gym and reconfigured locker rooms.
Baylor University
Baylor University looked to Dallas-based F&S Partners to design a building that improves student recruitment and retention, but more importantly, a building that fosters a sense of community at the school’s Waco, Texas campus.
The result is the McLane Student Life Center, a building that houses all of the school’s recreation, fitness, and health facilities. The 156,000-sqaure-foot building includes a health center and pharmacy, four-court gymnasium, eight racquetball courts, jogging track, aerobics studio, weight room, and impressive 52-foot-high climbing sculpture. Also included within the building is a large natatorium with hot tub, “bubble couches,” and a triple-spiral slide jettisoning students into a large pool. A sun deck and sand courts for volleyball and basketball are accessed from this area.
Built at a cost of $18.4 million, the building has been fostering a sense of community since September 1999.
Bay Path College
The new Blake Student Commons at Bay Path College in Longmeadow, Mass. is a 10,800-square-foot building that connects the school’s renovated student center with the fitness/wellness center. The project, named after S. Prestley Blake, Friendly Ice Cream Corp. co-founder and Bay Path Trustee Emeritus, cost approximately $6 million and opened in September.
The architect was Douglas Engebretson, president of Tessier Associates and Bay Path Trustee. The contractor was Western Builders Inc.
New York University
After nearly 20 years of operation, it was obvious the natatorium within the Jerome S. Coles Recreation Center at New York University (NYU) was losing its battle against humidity.
NYU asked the building’s original architect, New York City-based WASA, to design a new humidification system. However, the project evolved into a much larger project that wound up including a revamped air conditioning system, an upgraded lighting system, a new pool filtration system, locker room upgrades, and the replacement of several architectural components. A mechanical equipment room also was relocated.
An accelerated timeframe forced the project to be completed during the summer-a span of only three months.
Washington State University
Later this month, students at Washington State University in Pullman will start using a new 160,000-square-foot recreation center. The college expects to use the center in order to bring attention to their remote location in eastern Washington state.
Gilbane Building Company is overseeing construction of the brick and glass building that includes a fitness center, an elevated running track, an in-line skating rink, two gymnasiums, seven basketball courts, four racquet ball courts, three aerobics areas, a lap pool, and a 40-person spa with cascading waterfall.
Ohio State University
Ohio State University in Columbus is spending nearly $190 million renovating its 78-year old football stadium.
The renovation brings 82 new luxury boxes to the facility as well as a $9 million scoreboard that will be the largest in college football. Also included in the project is an outer row of concession stands that is being wrapped around the existing structure, new restrooms, and widened aisles for handicapped patrons. The stadium is expected to open in time for the kickoff of the 2001 football season.
Hall of Champions
While not actually an athletic center itself, the Hall of Champions in Indianapolis is part of a complex that honors collegiate athletics and academics. Headquarters for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) also are part of the complex.
The campus and buildings-a combination of new construction and the remodeling of an 1879 flourmill-were designed by primary architect Schmidt Associates Inc. of Indianapolis and Michael Graves & Associates of Princeton, N.J. The Hall of Champions building has a semi-circular plan, a stadium-like façade, and other architectural elements and materials typically found within college sports facilities.
Inside the building, ticket booths, Astroturf flooring, a faux running track, an event-information scoreboard, and a recreated 1940s-era basketball court are just some of the details that enliven the facility, its exhibit spaces, and its theatre. The 40,000-square-foot building opened to the public in March 2000.