Reimaging a Readiness Center

by Marcy Marro | August 1, 2022 12:00 am

Designed by LEO A DALY[1], Omaha, Neb., and built by Stahl Construction[2], Minneapolis, the facility reimagines the readiness center for a new era of warfighting, peacekeeping and emergency response challenges.

The facility is part of the greater Arden Hills Army Training Site (AHATS) and is nestled among the rolling hills, wetlands and mature oak trees, making landscape a central focus of the design. The black building blends into the environment while working to mitigate its impact on the surrounding ecosystem. The site, which had been previously contaminated, has been restored to natural harmony, with building systems, waterways, old-growth forest and nesting birds integrated into a sustainable whole.

The flexible building designs allows for light office use during the weekday, while weekend drill activities bring in ten times the normal occupancy and increases use to include training exercises, equipment distribution, large-scale food services and more. To account for its wide variations in occupancy, the building’s mechanical systems were carefully zoned using geothermal heat pumps for regularly occupied and drill weekend spaces. Demand control ventilation reduces over-ventilating unoccupied spaces.

The building is divided into three masses to support these uses: Unit Support, which is dedicated to the storage of supplies and weapons; Administration, which accommodates highly critical operations and communications, while requiring the flexibility to operate functionally with anywhere from 50 occupants to 600 occupants; and the Common Use, a central zone that includes the building entry and serves as a hub by which all spaces extend from.

Providing a connection to the past, while demonstrating reverence to the site, the building’s iconic architecture represents a defining step forward for the Red Bulls. The chosen colors, materials and form express the simplicity and clarity of the activities within the building, while providing visual impact that stays true to the pragmatic sensibilities of the region, the client and the community it serves.

Moon Township, Pa.-based CENTRIA[3] supplied, and Omaha-based SGH Concepts[4], Minneapolis, installed 10,057 square feet of its 20-gauge BR5-36 corrugated, exposed fastener panels in Black. Additionally, the LEED Gold-certified project includes geothermal systems, photovoltaic arrays, LED lights and Energy Star equipment, while an underfloor air distribution systems improves ventilation effectiveness while reducing energy.

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/articles/reimaging-a-readiness-center/

---