Page 32 - College Planning & Management, September 2018

EMBRACING A NEW VISION FOR SPORTS, FITNESS, AND WELLNESS
new heartbeat of the campus,” as described by university president Barry Maloney. The aspiration is one shared by many university communities, especially those repositioning and redefining to meet changing student populations.
To succeed with a multiple-use strategy, the vision and planning stage
for a multipurpose facility requires broad campus input to objectively consider and select the right mix of compatible uses. The integration of these different programs works best when the goals of the project are established early. This allows the design team to better develop the proper flow
and organization of uses within the space: layering the traffic from public to private, integrating the social zones, the academic zones, and the athletic zones.
Campus location is another critical ele- ment. To become a connected social hub, the building needs a strategic placement—ide- ally along a main campus thoroughfare. This desire for connectivity will likely rule out the option of building or renovating on the edges of the campus where athletic buildings were traditionally located. At WSU, the LEED Gold Wellness Center anchors a new campus
quad, on the site of the original 1950s vintage gymnasium box, with lively public and social spaces fronting the green.
Welcoming and Transparent
The entry lobby of a multipurpose athlet- ics center is an opportunity to welcome and visibly convey the sense of energy and com- munity within. Devoting a portion of the lobby area to hospitality and food is an ideal way to generate foot traffic into the building, welcome all parts of the campus commu- nity, and create a place to see and be seen. At Worcester State University, one of the most popular gathering spaces on the campus is Chandler’s Juice and Smoothies in the lobby of the Wellness Center.
The appeal of the multipurpose build- ing is advanced enormously when those passing by can see into the active interior, while anyone inside benefits from expan- sive views out. Yet most athletic buildings are designed to intentionally prevent light from getting in. Given current design techniques, options to resolve the conflict between transparency and glare can be advanced through a series of daylighting studies early in the design process. This
Recognizing today that tomorrow’s sports and athletic buildings will integrate health, wellness, and academics into the whole student social experience sets the project up for the win.
can provide the design team with the information they need to maximize the views in and out and maintain safe and effective lighting conditions for the athletic functions within.
Design Ideas
and Considerations
Multipurpose design achieves its best outcomes when each individual use over- lays and strengthens its surroundings. In a multipurpose athletic building, the goal is to establish a natural choreography among social, athletic, educational, and support spaces. This starts with circulation and movement into and throughout the facility.
The new 76,000-square-foot multi- purpose arena at Bentley University in Waltham, MA, is designed to host both NCAA Division 1 hockey games and community events including confer- ences, alumni receptions, career fairs, and concerts. The design balances multiple uses and user groups with adaptable com- munity spaces and amenities. One of the challenges in creating this mix was devis- ing safe, practical access and egress from the arena floor for as many as 3,400 people. With a hockey arena of this size, patrons typically enter from above and feed down into the seating bowl from the concourse. The Bentley arena allows concert and other floor events direct access to seating from the lobby, as well as the ability to circulate up and down through the seating bowl
to take advantage of the concession areas located along the concourse.
Storage for a multipurpose building is
LET’S GET PHYSICAL. Moving beyond a simple gymnasium relegated to the edge of campus where student-athletes
go to practice, a new breed of wellness center focused on helping all students—as well as faculty, staff, and even the surrounding community—develop healthy lifestyles is evolving. In addition to the gym, areas from weight rooms to juice bars, recreational equipment, yoga studios, classrooms for wellness learning, counseling space, and more are integrated into these facilities.
32 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / SEPTEMBER 2018
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