Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex

Founded in 1885, the University of St. Thomas launched an eight-year, $500 million capital campaign in 2007, the largest capital campaign in its history. The campaign raised funds for scholarship endowments, academic needs and several building projects, of which the athletic and recreation facility was one of the top priorities. A $60 million gift from generous donors Lee and Penny Anderson – the largest private, single contribution to a college or university in Minnesota – allows the new facility to advance to the next phase.

Hastings+Chivetta, in association with Opus AE Group, was asked to design the new Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex. An anchor for the Anderson Student Center, it creates a place for the entire St. Thomas community to meet and interact.

Recreation and athletic components include a field house with four multipurpose courts on the infield of a 200-meter six-lane track, surrounded by an elevated recreation track; a 2,000-seat performance gymnasium; a weight room; a racquetball court; a fitness center and aerobics rooms. A new aquatics center with a large pool and dive tank replaces the competitive swimming pool in the 1940s-era O’Shaughnessy Hall, which was razed.

A new basketball court was added to the north end of McCarthy Gym to replace the one lost in O’Shaughnessy Hall. Other spaces include a training room, locker rooms, coaches’ offices, classrooms, meeting rooms, laundry, storage, and a large lobby with a juice bar and control desk.

In 2004, the Salvation Army of the United States received a $1.5 billion trust from the estate of the late Joan B. Kroc, widow of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s Corporation. Kerrville is the first Salvation Army Corps in Texas to be approved for a Kroc grant for development of a community center. Kerrville Corps leaders hired Hastings+Chivetta, in association with Peter Lewis Architect & Associates, to design the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center. Design workshops were held with Corps constituents, and a community survey identified needs of new programs in arts, education, recreation, sports and fitness.

The Kroc Center’s major design element is a new chapel which affords a place for worship, celebration and performances. Double the size of the original facility, the Center’s activity components include a gymnasium, a fitness room and locker rooms. Other spaces provided are a childcare center with access to a gated outdoor playground, a teen lounge, a lobby with concessions, a party room, a fellowship hall with an adjacent full-service kitchen, classrooms and offices. An outdoor aquatics center has a heated lap pool, a therapeutic/exercise pool and a leisure pool with a slide, a climbing wall and play features. New ball fields double as a detention pond to mitigate flooding; this use was granted to the city by the Salvation Army to further community development. The facility allowed the Salvation Army to expand, to implement new programs and camps, and to evolve with the Texas Hill Country. The Center is open to the community and available to other agencies, groups and families.  

Bolstering recruitment at a DIII athletic and academic powerhouse.

 

At Denison University, the level of student participation in athletics is very high; with a total enrollment of approximately 2,100 students, close to 600 men and women play on NCAA Division II teams, 600 students are involved in club sports, and over 1,500 participate in intramurals.

In response to this level of participation, the university asked Hastings+Chivetta to renovate existing athletic facilities and provide a new 50-meter competition pool with a separate diving tank.

Four interconnected buildings built between 1951 and 1995 provide space for physical education, athletics, recreation, and training. Existing spaces were renovated and reorganized. The new addition includes a 50-meter competition pool, diving tank, athletic lockers and offices on the lower level, with a multi-purpose meeting space and balcony seating for 1,000 spectators accessible from the main level.

The main level of the addition also contains a new entry and lobby with hall of fame displays leading to the performance gymnasium, the existing 200-meter field house and the new natatorium. The existing pool was converted to a fitness center, which includes free weights, weight machines and cardio equipment on a mezzanine built over the existing spectator seating. With views into larger spaces below, the upper level offers work spaces, classrooms, meeting rooms, a large multipurpose room, a kitchen and staff locker rooms.

The combination of glass, metal panels and limestone complements the existing building and the surrounding campus. The footprint of the addition was designed to minimize the impact on site.

The project earned LEED Gold Certification.

The new Student Life Center is designed to be a transformative project on the University of Utah campus. The recreation center is a student-supported project and intended as a hub of social and recreational activity on campus, and the design team incorporated student input and involvement from the earliest stages of the project.

The resulting building is playful and uplifting – a direct reflection of the quality of life at the University.

The design is inspired by its surroundings in the state of Utah, which is predominantly a desert. The color scheme is mostly orange and red hues from the landscape to the south, and the angular surfaces throughout the facility are a nod to the rock formations in the red rock deserts.

The new building joins the previously disparate Campus Recreation Services into a single building. The recreation center features a natatorium with 50M lap pool, leisure pool and whirlpool. The 17,000 SF two-level fitness center contains cardio equipment, weight machines and free weights. Other spaces include a three-court gym with a suspended track, two-court auxiliary gym, a 10-foot tall bouldering wall, 54-foot tall climbing wall, racquetball courts and four group fitness studios.