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Opened in January 2011, the $19.5 million, 49,000-square-foot Student Fitness Center at Everett Community College in Everett, Wash., is LEED Gold certified. Designed by SRG Partnership Inc., Seattle, the project is defined by its open and airy concept.
“We wanted to create an open, visually and acoustically connected space that allows the sights and sounds of sports activities to resonate throughout the building,” explains Stan Jaworowski, AIA, LEED AP, senior associate with SRG Partnership. “This sense of openness was promoted in several ways. Gym walls go only as high as required by programmatic needs and it opens to double-high circulation lobbies on interior sides, permitting sightlines to extend from one corner of the building to another.”
Jaworowski explains that natural light and natural ventilation are the result of large expanses of efficient operable and automatic windows, skylights and double-height spaces, which accentuate a feeling of bringing the outside environment in. Air enters though the window system and circulates up and out through a series of roof-mounted relief hoods. Meanwhile, skylights that have an integral louver system help fill the building with controlled natural light.
Communication within the building and campus, along with community outreach, are the two aspects of openness and connectivity the building creates. “We felt it was important to attain perception of critical athletic energy to promote and sustain activity within,” Jaworowski explains. “Equally important was the Student Fitness Center’s impact on the college and the surrounding community. By making it as transparent as possible, the center creates a positive, dynamic interface that places fitness front and center at Everett Community College.”
To secure the weight room during public events and athletic contests in the gym, the architects designed space sculpting wall panels made up of Cambridge, Md.-based Cambridge Architectural’s Infinity mesh system encased with a U-binding. “The area needed to be secured, yet have an open and connected feeling to the lobby space outside,” says Jaworowski. “Visibility, audibility and ventilation were all requirements of the wall system; the mesh was a very attractive part of the solution.”
“In addition to securing the space,” Jaworowski continues, “a natural ventilation scheme required air movement from the weight room’s windows through the room and into the double-high lobby space.”
The mesh wall provided the durability, lightness and permeability that the design team desired in the final interior. “The design team had a great deal of interest in promoting a sense of connection between activities and spaces, including being able to hear goings-on throughout the building,” Joworowski says. “Mesh offered an attractive product that was consistent with these goals.”
For the project, Advanced Welding and Steel Inc., Grangeville, Idaho, supplied the structural steel and metal grate canopy sunshades, and CMC Joist & Deck, Houston, provided the trusses. Pacific Aluminum Co., Woodinville, Wash., supplied the curtainwall system, along with the integrated sunshades. Linear skylights were provided by Lacey Glass, Lacey, Wash., while Sacramento, Calif.-based Sunoptics Prismatic Skylights supplied unit skylights. Kingspan Insulated Panels, Deland, Fla., provided its insulated metal panels for the building exterior, and Fryer Noble Co., Seattle, provided the Jakob stainless steel cable trellis system on the south wall.
The new center replaced the college’s 1958 gym, which was demolished in August 2009. To preserve a part of the college’s history, part of the old gym floor and bricks were salvaged to incorporate into the design of the new fitness center, which includes classrooms for physical education and health programs, a gym with retractable bleacher seating for 2,250, cardio and free weight training room, climbing wall, running track, juice bar, multipurpose small gym, and offices for faculty and staff. Additionally, it includes space for intercollegiate athletics and activities.
Student Fitness Center, Everett Community College, Everett, Wash.
Awards: 2011 Citation Award, AIA Portland, and 2011 Citation Award, Oregon chapter of the International Interior Design Association
Architect: SRG Partnership Inc., Seattle
General contractor: Panattoni Construction Inc., Seattle
Cable trellis: Fryer Noble Co., Seattle, www.fryernoble.com
Curtainwall/integrated sunshades: Pacific Aluminum Co., Woodinville, Wash., www.pacificaluminum.com
Insulated metal panels: Kingspan Insulated Panels, Deland, Fla., www.kingspanpanels.us
Linear skylights: Lacey Glass, Lacey, Wash., www.laceyglass.com
Metal mesh: Cambridge Architectural, Cambridge, Md., www.cambridgearchitectural.com
Structural steel/canopy sunshades: Advanced Welding and Steel Inc., Grangeville, Idaho, www.advancedweldingandsteel.com
Trusses: CMC Joist & Deck, Houston, www.cmcjd.com
Unit skylights: Sunoptics Prismatic Skylights, Sacramento, Calif., www.sunoptics.com
Photo credit: Lara Swimer