Serving up an Ace: Yale’s tennis facility is transformed
Yale University’s indoor tennis facility in West Haven, Conn., needed renovation and expansion from four to eight courts to accommodate tournaments and ease the crush of daily practice. To accommodate a tight,sloping site and improve fans’ experience, a wedge shaped central viewing lobby full of daylight connects a new court building to the old facility.
Mark Simon, FAIA, and Susan Wyeth, AIA, of Centerbrook Architects and Planners, Centerbrook, Conn., utilized Mesco Metal Buildings from NCI Group Inc.-owned Mesco Building Solutions, Irving, Texas, to provide Yale with a new eight-court indoor tennis center with spectacular viewing, a spacious lobby,locker rooms, a team room and coaches’ offices. Yale University wanted one of the top indoor facilities in the Ivy League to help attract the best and the brightest to be part of their tennis programs.
The lobby is one story above the new courts, allowing seating very close to the tennis action. Unlike most tennis centers that have glass walls, audience seating is directly open to the tennis courts. Unique acoustical treatment in the lobby contains audience noise. Banners celebrate the university’s tennis heroes. The staff desk in the lobby has a view of the entry and all courts. The two tennis pavilions match each other in lighting and size to keep all courts equivalent for competition. State-of-the-art indirect metal halide lighting provides evenly bright illumination on the courts. A hallway below the lobby allows coaches to access both sets of courts quickly, and a playful entry canopy covers visitors during inclement weather and enjoys spirited aluminum column capitals designed and fabricated by Kent Bloomer Studio, New Haven, Conn.
“Using metal was a no brainer because of the large expanses we had to cover and the relatively tight budget we had,” Simon said. “And the existing building was metal. We broke through the existing building so you could see into the new building from the viewer’s lobby. It would’ve been very difficult to use another material and the metal, of course, went up very fast, so construction time was short.”
Metal was also malleable, allowing it to be shaped into playful, hi-tech curves, reinforcing the identity of the place as a modern, cutting edge sports facility. Kynar custom color was used for siding, standard color for roofing; standard white powder coat for ceiling panels. Interior railings are painted steel pipe with stainless mesh link panels stretched over stainless-steel cable or attached stainless-steel pipe, made by Cambridge Architectural, Cambridge, Md., and a local fabricator.
The Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center went from being a fairly basic facility to allowing Yale to host the NCAA Championships for tennis last year, according to Simon.
“I think we proved that you can take a very standard type of construction and make a really handsome building out of it. And everybody’s very proud of it,” he said.
Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center, Yale University, West Haven, Conn.
Completed: 2008
Total square footage: 71,691 square feet (38,775 new square feet plus 32,916 renovated square feet)
Building owner: Yale University
Architect: Centerbrook Architects and Planners, Centerbrook, Conn., www.centerbrook.com
General contractor: Downes Construction Co., New Britain, Conn.
Metal installer: Downes Construction (building) and SteelTech Building Products (perforated steel panel ceiling), South Windsor, Conn.
Aluminum columns: Kent Bloomer Studio, New Haven, Conn.
Metal mesh: Cambridge Architectural, Cambridge, Md., www.cambridgearchitectural.com
Metal building: Mesco Building Solutions, Irving, Texas, www.mescobuildingsolutions.com
