Gallery
“This bold transformation takes great advantage of its context. The new entry and exercise pavilion set the tone for a remarkable evolution of the existing facility. The large, oval volume is dynamic, open, and inviting. It's easy to see how this new form and the activities it contains have inspired greater student participation and connectivity to the campus.”Athletic Business - Facilty of Merit
Description
Texas Christian University has transformed Rickel Hall – an outdated, 1970s building near the center of campus – into a recreation center that meets the expectations of today’s students. The Center now boasts a weight and fitness center, a five-court multiuse gymnasium, racquetball and squash courts, a climbing wall and a running track, as well as an outdoor swimming pool, sand volleyball courts and passive recreational facilities. The design responds to these extensive program demands by expanding, remodeling and reconfiguring the windowless precast concrete structure in inventive ways that better suit modern student life and the current campus setting.
Drawing students to the new Recreation Center is the dynamically shaped fitness center – the facility’s most visible and highly used space. Under a broadly curved copper roof, transparent glass walls provide views of people exercising inside. At night, the interior is brightly illuminated to act as a campus beacon.
Distinctions
- International Olympic Committee and International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities
- Bronze Award
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“The sports and leisure center has given Texas Christian University an invigorating range of activities that enriches campus life enormously - not only for students and users, but also from the point of view of the university itself. Its transparency is an invitation to enter and explore the materials employed, the building and room volumes, and hence the use of energy, are extremely beneficial. Its high design quality can be seen from the many fine solutions that have been found for the various user groups and traffic flows.”
- Athletic Business
- Facility of Merit
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“This bold transformation takes great advantage of its context. The new entry and exercise pavilion set the tone for a remarkable evolution of the existing facility. The large, oval volume is dynamic, open, and inviting. It's easy to see how this new form and the activities it contains have inspired greater student participation and connectivity to the campus.”
- AIA State of Virginia
- Honor Award
- AIA Washington, DC
- Merit Award in Architecture
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“A very effective re-energization of an existing facility with a dynamic addition. The architectural expression is strong and dramatic. The interior spaces are very well detailed with much thought given to spatial quality.”
- National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association
- Outstanding Sports Facility
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“...a clever and exotic addition to the campus, the building's form clearly communicates the notion of movement and the varied uses of materials, such as copper, visually unite the new and existing structures”