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New Student Recreation Center Underway at UCR

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The University of California, Riverside (UCR) is embarking on a $32.5 million project that will expand and modernize its recreation center on campus.

Los Angeles-based general contractor C.W. Driver has recently started construction on the new student recreation center, which involves 9,000 square feet of renovations to the existing recreation center and more than 80,000 square feet of new construction in order to expand its offerings to the university community.

The project is targeted to receive LEED Silver certification and construction is slated for completion in January 2015. The Los Angeles office of Cannon Design served as the architect for the project. The design expands the university’s existing recreation center, giving students access to new and improved fitness and well-being equipment and activities.

“This new structure will offer a comprehensive facility for the campus that involves creating new spaces while revitalizing the existing areas,” said Brett Curry, vice president of operations for C.W. Driver. “Blending the new space into the existing structure presents a unique construction challenge for this project, which when complete will be presented as an integrated, yet expanded and revitalized recreation center that UCR can be very proud of.”

The existing 9,000-square-foot structure on the lower level will be upgraded to include new offices, administration areas and training and multipurpose rooms. The expansive two-story addition will connect to the existing facility with a new bridge between the upper floors, while the existing facility will receive expansive upgrades.

Most of the existing fitness equipment will be moved to the new two-story addition, which will feature an indoor track, indoor climbing and bouldering wall, additional indoor courts, a new MAC gym, a fitness lab and massage therapy room, new weight and cardio equipment, a demonstration kitchen and multi-purpose rooms. UCR’s traditional blend brick will be used in the construction of a new circular locker room structure. The second floor will have views of the new 5,000-square-foot outdoor pool and deck, new sand volleyball courts, tennis courts and field space, as well as views of the Box Springs Mountains to the east.

“Because of the location, we need to incorporate the best use of natural light, as well as natural heating and cooling which will support the building’s sustainability efforts,” Curry said. “UCR’s blend brick is a traditional component that we will incorporate so that the new building is reflective of the campus traditions, but feels new and exciting with modern materials as well.”

Materials for construction will revolve around UCR’s blend brick, a campus requirement, which will be featured prominently on the opaque volumes at the ground level. The upper level will use a combination of curtainwall glazing and metal panels, and will feature vertical screening devices and overhangs to provide sun protection for the multiple solar orientations of the undulating façade. By utilizing different screen shapes and patterns along the curvature of the second floor, the facility will maximize the use of natural light while keeping cooling and heating costs to a minimum during peak hours, helping the facility achieve its targeted LEED Silver certification.

“The project’s location puts the site adjacent to not just existing sports facilities and thoroughfares, but also right against the existing Recreation Center building which will remain in use until the completion of construction,” said Brian DeMartino, senior project manager for C.W. Driver. “This poses a great challenge for construction because we will be installing utilities around the existing building, working in and around the existing facility, and building a new structure only a few feet from the existing occupied spaces.”

The new recreation center is expected to be a highlight of the campus and is currently running on time and on schedule for its 2015 opening.

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$61 Million Recreation Center Opens at CSU Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Calif. — By the time you read this, thousands of California State University, Long Beach students will have already explored and used the school’s new Student Recreation and Wellness Center, a $61 million, 126,000-square-foot facility that opened its doors Sept. 20 after a year and a half of construction.

Inside the student-fee funded SRWC, students, faculty, alumni, and family members can scale a rock-climbing wall, play racquetball and basketball on designated courts for each, or dine in at the Fresh Foods Café Express. The SRWC also features 20,000 square feet of weight lifting and cardio equipment, an indoor running track, sand volleyball courts, and an outside recreation pool and spa. Members of the SRWC pay $116 per semester to use the facility, considered the largest rec center in the CSU system.

"This is about the economics of making a healthier society," the university’s president, F. King Alexander, said at the opening of the student rec center. "A healthier student body means healthier graduates. This is about healthier citizenry."

International architecture firm Cannon Design designed the SRWC, while Pasadena, Calif.-based builder C.W. Driver served as general contractor on the project. Project managers hope the building will become one of two LEED Silver facilities on the CSULB campus. The SRWC utilizes gray water for irrigation and contains waterless urinals, sensor-operated lighting, recycled building materials, and biometric scanners for access.

Read more about the SRWC at www.asirecreation.org.

Edited 9-29-10

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$61 Million Recreation Center Opens at CSU Long Beach

Read more about the SRWC at www.asirecreation.org.

Edited 9-29-10

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$71 Million Rec Center Opens in Calif.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gazing up at the exterior of the two-story glass façade of the recently completed recreation center at Sacramento State University, architect Burt Miller describes the visual experience of seeing the finished product that his company designed, from the outside looking in.

“On the one hand, it appears like a bank of monitors, each window displaying a different scene with a different student working out in it,” says Miller, a principal and senior vice president at the San Francisco-based Hornberger + Worestell design firm.

“On the other hand, it’s like an ant farm with this transparent layer where all the activity is happening immediately behind it, like people coming and going from the lobby, students dining in the café, groups working out in the exercise studios, etc.” he says.

The bottom line, he says, is that the architects and builders achieved exactly what they were trying for when sketching out designs for The WELL (Wellness, Education, Leisure, Lifestyle), a $71 million, 151,000-square-foot recreational facility at Sac State, that is slated to open its doors in September.

Designers from Hornberger + Worstell, along with Ellerbe Becket of Kansas City, Mo., were aiming for a structure that stood apart from the so-called “warehouses for recreation” that Miller says he and his colleagues witnessed at other California State University campuses.

“On one level, this recreation and wellness center will create a new social nexus for the campus where students, either before, after, or between classes, will have an opportunity gather and workout,” says Miller. “The university also wanted a building that — to use their words — had a ‘Wow!’ factor. They didn’t want to be timid with the structure.”

Historically a commuter-school, it’s been a long-term goal of Sac State to give its students more on-campus activities. Funded by a $50 million CSU system-wide bond and a student fee established in 2004, The WELL is open to students, faculty, staff, and super-alum that paid the fee in past years.

Housing both the recreation department and health services, The WELL replaces several outdated facilities, including the early 1950s-era campus buildings that had previously contained the university’s health department.

Architects designed the building with plenty of transparent walls and a sweeping north face that takes advantage of natural lighting and creates a quad between The WELL and another recently completed structure, the student union building, aptly titled the University Union. On the southwestern end of the rec center are outdoor terraces that overlook Hornet Stadium, the game field for Sac State’s football team. Inside is located the largest climbing wall in the CSU system, an indoor running track, several multipurpose courts and fitness students, racquetball areas, and an attached four-court basketball complex.

The health services department is located at the other end of The WELL, and includes primary and urgent care clinics, a pharmacy and nutrition center, laboratories, imaging services, a preventative health area, and a cooking demonstration room. Peak Adventures, a student outdoor club at Sac State, also has its offices inside the rec center.

Locating the health, recreation departments and the outdoor club in the same facility provided opportunities for collaboration, says Mirjana Gavric, director at The WELL.

“What I find most exciting about this building is the philosophy behind what we’re doing — the integration of health services, the outdoors adventure club, and recreation,” says Gavric. “We’re integrating those three areas in a partnership, and we’re providing a service that’s unique — it’s mind, body, and soul.”

“It’s about students being able to go to the health center and receive a prescription, which might be something like a yoga class or a breathing class in the rec center, or maybe their doctor prescribes an outdoor adventure course,” she says.

Miller added that the close proximity of the recreation and health areas also presented unique design challenges — particularly with regard to designing wellness areas private from those of recreation services.

“On the one hand, the Well has programs and activities that want to reach out and commingle with recreation,” says Miller, “but on the other, [many] people who visit health services are ill and want isolation, or they are there for personal reasons and need some privacy.”

To achieve this environment, wellness areas are located at one end of the building but share meeting spaces and the central lobby with the rec department. Less private areas, like the pharmacy and retail optometrist, are located off of this shared space.

In addition to a building focused on all-things holistic, the facility encourages a healthy environment through its green features. Expected to earn LEED Gold, The WELL incorporates many of the standard sustainable elements found in green buildings, including a high efficiency HVAC system and plenty of daylighting and recycled building materials.

Some of the not-so-common green elements include a lobby floor made of recycled Heineken-bottles and gymnasium paneling created from pressed sunflower seeds. Unique products include a Vector Foiltec skylight system, which features an ETFE film designed to reduce heat gain, and several Big Ass Fans ceiling fans, installed to increase air circulation in The WELL.

The WELL was built by nationwide construction firm McCarthy Building Co. and Tony Moayed Construction Services of Sacramento.

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