Sports

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  David Body, FAIA, RIBA

  Principal

  Heralded as “the George Washington of modern university athletic buildings,” David Body is recognized as one of the prime creators of the contemporary student recreation center. Body has established international renown through more than three decades of planning and designing sports and recreational complexes, wellness facilities, and “fusion” buildings, including such pioneering facilities as the John Wooden Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the RIMAC Center at the University of California, San Diego, a project honored with the prestigious IOC/IAKS Award. A member of the Society of Architectural Historians, he is a frequent lecturer and author on sports and recreation master planning and design.

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  Robert J. Fatovic, AIA

  Vice President

  A specialist in coordinating and managing the design and construction of collegiate sports, recreation, stadium, leisure and special event facilities, Robert Fatovic' has over 30 years of experience providing extensive programming, design, master planning and feasibility services to clients worldwide. His education and experience, which includes landscape planning and urban design, as well as architectural design and management, makes him uniquely qualified to take a leadership position on diverse sports facilities. His operational approach and collaborative style have earned Fatovic’ recognition from both his peers and clients. He is a frequent guest lecturer and has presented at the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), Athletic Business, and the Stadium Management Conference of the International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM).

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  Colleen McKenna, LEED, Associate AIA

  Associate Principal

  Over the course of her professional career as a sports planner, Colleen McKenna has served on the design teams of over 40 sports and recreation facility projects, ranging from feasibility and programming studies to full architectural services. The leader of Cannon Design’s sport practice, McKenna’s diverse portfolio includes college and university recreation centers, intercollegiate athletic facilities, and community centers including the award winning University of Maine Student Recreation and Fitness Center. Part of the leadership team for Cannon Design’s national sports practice, McKenna supports the practice with an in-depth knowledge of functional planning requirements which result in design solutions that meet the diverse needs of both competitive and recreational participants. McKenna was recently named among Boston Business Journal’s “40 Under 40,” an award recognizing outstanding professionals.

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  Laura Zamprogna

  Vice President

  Laura Zamprogna has over 15 years in the planning and execution of international-level sporting events. Her exceptional skill sets include technical staging and venue operations for both international and national competitions. Her hands-on management and operations roles successfully secured and produced events for the World-Track and Field championships, Sydney and Atlanta Olympic and Paralympic Games, Skate Canada, World Road Cycling championships, Commonwealth Games, World University Games, the Toronto Raptors, in addition to supporting multiple bid committees.

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Planning & Programming

Master planning and programming of sports and recreation facilities requires vision, expertise, and an in-depth knowledge of all sports and recreation typologies. With an endless range of requirements and understanding for each physical activity, clients seek architects who can share their knowledge of sport and bring focus to the overall planning process in an streamlined and efficient manner.

Cannon Design has lead the master planning and programming process across North America and abroad for communities and private and public institutions of varying size, as well as organizing committees involved in the hosting of the Olympic Games and other international sporting events.

Campus Recreation

The John R. Wooden Student Center at UCLA designed in the early 80’s was a seminal building of the genre. Cannon Design has built on this heritage for over 20 years and remains in the vanguard of recreation center design, bringing a blend of experience and creativity to a continuum of projects on small and large campuses alike.

Cannon Design’s in-depth understanding of this building type, as well as its users and administrators, has proven invaluable to recent explorations of the innovative ‘fusion building’ concept that combines student recreation with traditional union functions, performing arts, wellness and intercollegiate athletics.

Intercollegiate Athletics

The increasingly competitive world of intercollegiate athletics demands both excellence in performance and supporting facilities. Well designed arenas, stadia, training centers, practice facilities, academic centers, tracks and aquatic centers are essential to both fundraising and the recruitment of athletes on college campuses throughout North America.

The increase in demand for these functionally specific facilities is fertile ground for the creative talents of Cannon Design’s team of sports designers who have a thorough understanding and respect for the unique demands of each sport and its supporting facilities.

With in-house graphic and exhibit capabilities, we can ensure that your facility is not only functional but embodies the visual excitement that appeals to both athletes and alumni alike.

Community & Private Recreation

As recreation opportunities become more synonymous with wellness/quality of life issues and as the demand for community focused socialization opportunities continue to grow, recreation centers have evolved to become one of the most significant components of the community landscape. While municipalities are beginning to embrace the positive economic influences that result from successful recreation programs, citizens have long been aware of the personal value these centers provide.

As studies demonstrate, our psychological well-being is directly affected by our physical environment, Cannon Design’s team of sports and recreation planners and designers believe these buildings should be emotionally uplifting and psychologically stimulating, reinforcing the demand for human sustainability. Through years of experience and research, Cannon Design continues to be at the forefront of community recreation and private recreation facility design.

Stadiums & Arenas

Arenas are increasingly required to accommodate a multiplicity of functions for varying numbers of spectators. The flexibility demanded in the design of arenas and spectator support services is a hallmark of Cannon Design’s project experience.

Our arena portfolio includes ice arenas, convocation centers, spectator facilities of varying size as well as a major project on the world stage, the Richmond Olympic Oval, signature venue for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and an embodiment of the Olympic ideals of sustainability and legacy.

The firm’s stadium portfolio is focused on smaller colleges and universities and on unique public opportunities including stadiums for football, track, and field, field hockey, baseball and aquatics. Many of these involve creative solutions for tight urban sites.

Cannon Design both attends and is frequently invited to speak at international conferences focused on stadium design and our sports professionals are fully conversant on issues related to accessibility, crowd control, spectator support, sustainability and other topics relevant to the success of any institutional or public stadium.

International Games

Cannon Design provides consulting services to numerous international Games bid and organizing committees worldwide. Our services include the analysis and determination of venue locations, design and planning of temporary facilities to host Games events and the design/delivery of permanent sports buildings, initially designed to support Games requirements. Our sports specialists understand and can successfully address the dual objectives unique to Games facilities: one, a venue planning process must respond to the Games temporary venue and sport operations requirements; two, the necessity that permanent buildings be designed with legacy requirements as its highest priority, even above its Games requirements.

Sports Fields & Surfaces

In designing and building sports and recreation facilities, no other decision has a greater impact on the user than the selection of the sports surface. As a result, the design and selection of a sports surfacing system must be established and maintained as one of the highest priority by the design team and the owners.

Our sports surfacing specialists understand that biomechanical properties related to athlete safety and performance must be carefully investigated, and only those surfaces that are superior in their biomechanical performance considered for installation. Over the past 20 years, Cannon Design has been an active supporter and passionate participant in sport surfacing research and testing programs to improve the quality of sports surfaces for athletes of all ages and abilities. We are the only architectural practice in North America to hold elected membership into the International Association for Sports Surface Sciences (ISSS), an organization that partners with high performance laboratories to develop and determine safety properties for a wide range of sports surfaces.

Aquatics

Aquatics facilities, whether stand alone or components of larger athletic, recreation, community, health club or healthcare facilities, are specialized facilities with unique programmatic, technical and environmental requirements of not only the pool and related mechanical and chemical systems, but also the surrounding natatorium enclosure materials and finishes, air handling systems, humidity and condensation control, glazing and glare control, and acoustics.

Cannon Design’s extensive portfolio of built aquatics facilities demonstrates a keen understanding of the full spectrum of aquatic activities, including competitive swimming, diving, waterpolo and synchronized swimming, instruction and lifeguard training, lap swimming and water aerobics, hydrotherapy, and recreational/leisure activities, all designed for participants, spectators, instructors, coaches, administrators, officials, and maintenance staff alike. Our comprehensive expertise with aquatic trends and technologies assure our clients of the most advanced systems incorporating innovative sustainable features for manageable facility lifecycle costs.

Human Performance/ Sports Sciences

Improving physical and sport specific performance and increasing athletic safety is a mission relentlessly pursued by sports medicine and sport scientists. Cannon Design has worked with leading practitioners in developing cutting-edge sports science and research facilities in both the university and public sectors. These facilities include biomechanics and exercise physiology laboratories and biochemistry and histology laboratories, as well as microbiology and animal testing facilities.

By combining the skills and passions of the sports medicine and sport science practitioners together with our experienced designers and planners, Cannon Design has developed facilities that provide far ranging benefits to all athletes, from high performance and elite performers, to children learning new skills and seniors recovering from acute medical conditions. Our design professionals continue to pioneer this ever-changing and developing genre benefiting those from all walks of life.

Field Houses

As athletes move towards more frequent and more intensive training sessions, the demand for unique solutions to combat the lack of indoor practice space has increased significantly. This trend is even more apparent in outdoor sports such as track and field, whose primary competitive season can be hindered by an early snowfall or an abundant rainy season.

Designing field houses requires a tremendous understanding of overall program requirements of all indoor sports, the creative insight to blend a diversity of needs in one facility, and precise understanding of the vast and intricate details from the sports flooring system and materials to the spectator sight lines.

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  Environmental Design & Construction

  Exercising Thought: Sidwell Friends School, Athletic Facility

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  Architect

  P/A Awards: Laurier Brantford YMCA Athletic Complex

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  Sidwell Friends School - Athletic Facility

  Innovation Architecture & Design Awards

  Recreation Management

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  Green Good Design Award for Architecture

  Chicago Athenaeum, Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies

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  Gettysburg College - Center for Athletics, Recreation, and Fitness

  Project of the Year - Higher Education

  Mid-Atlantic Construction

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  Adelphi University - Centers for Sport and Performing Arts

  Building of America Gold Medal

  Real Estate and Construction Review

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  Outstanding Design

  American School & University

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  Outstanding Sports Facility

  National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association

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  Northern Arizona University - Health and Learning Center

  Citation for Design Excellence

  Association of College Unions International

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  Citation for Design Excellence

  American School & University

  Wonderful integration of existing and new spaces. Very well composed formally with friendly, warm spaces inside.—2012 Jury

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  Citation for Design Excellence

  American School & University

  Wonderful integration of existing and new spaces. Very well composed formally with friendly, warm spaces inside.—2012 Jury

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  California State University, Long Beach - Recreation Center

  Innovative Architecture & Design Awards

  Recreation Management

  Outstanding! Abundance of natural light is delightful. Simple, clean interiors help keep a very large building feeling light and balanced inside. Great connectivity between various activities and good small-scale social space. Another smash hit for the CSU system in Long Beach.

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  Design Award

  Society of American Registered Architects

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  Brantford YMCA/ Wilfrid Laurier University - Recreation Complex

  Progressive Architecture Award

  Architect Magazine

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  City of Richmond - Richmond Olympic Oval

  IOC/IAKS Gold Medal Award

  International Olympic Committee and International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities

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  University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh - Student Recreation and Wellness Center

  Outstanding Sports Facility

  National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association

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  March 4, 2013

  The Wellness Center: Not Just a Name on a Building

  The definition of wellness can vary dramatically from one institution to another. This presentation explores design fundamentals, environmental factors and projects that address the growing need to incorporate health & wellness in recreation spaces.

  Presented At:

  • NIRSA National Conference, March 4, 2013
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  March 4, 2013

  New Opportunities in Old Spaces: Making the Most of Your Renovation Project

  The recent financial downturn may be limiting colleges and universities from attempting to build brand new recreation centers, but there are plenty of opportunities to deliver valuable, cost-effective and creative solutions thru renovation. These projects can revitalize campuses, bolster student ...

  Presented At:

  • NIRSA National Recreation Facilities Institute Conference, March 4, 2013
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  Nov. 15, 2012

  Recreation, Health + Wellness: The Ultimate Fusion Building

  Fusing multiple services with campus recreation can be a monumental undertaking for many institutions. This presentation explores the pros and cons of unifying recreation, health and wellness under one roof. Design fundamentals, environmental factors and project examples illustrate the many ...

  Presented At:

  • NIRSA Region I Conference, Nov. 15, 2012
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  Oct. 18, 2012

  Abracadabra! Transforming and Modernizing Recreation Spaces by Renovation and Expansion

  The recent financial downturn may be limiting colleges and universities from attempting to build brand new recreation centers, but there are plenty of opportunities to deliver valuable, cost-effective and creative solutions thru renovation. These projects can revitalize campuses, bolster student ...

  Presented At:

  • NIRSA Region II Conference, Oct. 18, 2012
  • NIRSA Region IV Conference, Oct. 10, 2012
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  Sept. 25, 2012

  Keynote Presentation: BC Place

  BC Place is Canada’s largest indoor stadium and the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies and medal ceremonies for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Cannon Design worked on the stadium’s renovation prior to these events which included ...

  Presented At:

  • Hub International Design Solutions Conference, Engineering Solutions, Sept. 25, 2012