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Rutgers Breaks Ground on New Health Athletic Performance Center

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PISCATAWAY TOWNSHIP, N.J. — Construction began on the RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center earlier this month at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in Piscataway Township. New York-based Perkins Eastman designed the 295,255-square-foot building, which will serve as a practice facility for men’s and women’s basketball as well as the wrestling and gymnastics programs.

The four-story building is part of the first major initiative from the university’s 2015 Athletics Big 10 Build plan. It will help create a stronger identity for Rutgers Athletics by completing and activating a new Athletics Plaza that incorporates existing pedestrian routes and links the academic campus with athletic fields.

New York-based Perkins Eastman designed the 295,255-square-foot RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center, which recently broke ground at Rutgers University in Piscataway Township.
New York-based Perkins Eastman designed the 295,255-square-foot RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center, which recently broke ground at Rutgers University in Piscataway Township.

“The facility will anchor a new Livingston Campus quadrangle in front of [the Rutgers Athletic Center], serving as a vibrant new destination and face of Rutgers Athletics,” said Scott Schiamberg, AIA, AICP, LEED AP BD+C, principal and leader of Perkins Eastman’s Sports & Exhibition practice area, in a statement. “We are proud to have designed this high-performance facility that will help support the championship culture for the student-athletes at Rutgers University.”

The facility will include spaces for sports medicine, strength and conditioning, nutrition and training table and a sports-performance lab to support the athletic program. Additional elements include a Hall of Fame, Spirit Shop and training table that will be located off the main public entrance lobby. A massive parking deck will also provide hundreds of parking spaces.

“The RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center will create an environment that will provide student athletes outstanding support facilities for their athletic, academic and social performance, and foster a sense of pride in the Rutgers community,” said David C. Schulz AIA, vice president of Planning, Development and Design at Rutgers University, in a statement. “It will have a dramatic and wide-ranging impact on Rutgers athletic programs for years to come.”

Being constructed adjacent to the Rutgers Athletic Complex and Rutgers Business School, the RWJBarnabas Health Athletic Performance Center is scheduled for completion in June 2019.