With the largest student body in the state of Texas, and one of the largest in the country, Texas A&M University has more than 69,000 students enrolled at its flagship campus in College Station, Texas. Knowing that the campus needed expanded recreational services, the University acted on its master plan vision to design a new satellite facility, the Southside Rec Center. Located next to the University Golf Course, the goal was to alleviate overcrowding at the existing campus recreation center, offer more student employment opportunities and make recreation more accessible to students living in the adjacent campus housing.
Texas A&M’s Southside Rec Center wins the Grand Award and Ribbed Metal Wall Panels category in the 2023 Metal Architecture Design Awards
Photo: Wade Griffith
The Southside Rec Center, with its simple nature and its subtle application of metal, won over the judges, who named it the Grand Award Winner and the winner in the Ribbed Metal Wall Panel category. Highlighting the combination of materiality and contrast between the stone and metal, the judges were impressed with the detail juxtaposition and range of applications throughout the project.
Campus Master Plan Details
The university’s master plan highlights the importance of human scale, campus context and articulating the building’s base, middle and top. The Southside Rec Center is the campus’ sixth stand-alone facility and features 63,500 square feet of indoor recreational space with an additional 15,000 square feet of outdoor space.
Working within a framework of simplicity, functionality and campus experience, Kalman Nagy, AIA, NCARB, design principal at SmithGroup, Dallas, says the facility consists of two high-bay spaces that flank a central spine of supporting program space. “Per the campus master plan, the project needed to showcase the program inside and engage the campus at a pedestrian scale,” he explains. “I enjoy how the building canopy covers a campus pathway, bringing students along the edge of the building to see the energetic fitness happening inside. The result of these simple moves is a surprisingly powerful experience of the building from outside to inside.”
Photo: Wade Griffith
Simple Design Elements
Using a simple, three-part planning diagram, the project showcases the campus’s primary program spaces and maximizes the facility’s function. A large entry plaza and adjacent courts anchor the start of the planning diagram at the intersection of Mosher and Bizzell, while the central lobby and supporting spaces support the courts to the north and the strength and conditioning high bay to the south. As students move along Bizzell, they can see the courts, lobby and strength and conditioning in succession. Inside, the 100-foot by 200-foot strength and conditioning high bay is free of columns, allowing for ease in laying out fitness equipment.
Additionally, at the central stair hub, a clearstory window brings daylight into the heart of the building, which connects all of the primary program spaces, including the courts, strength and conditioning high bay, bouldering wall, locker rooms, and cardio mezzanine. “Minimal circulation space connects a variety of programs and is a good example of a simple design move with a big impact,” notes Nagy.
Photo: Wade Griffith
Texture and Variety
The architects chose metal to complement the campus context and master plan design guidelines. The high-quality design was achieved through simple and thoughtful details that synchronized the exterior materials palette of limestone to flat composite metal panels and single-skin ribbed metal panels.
According to Nagy, the master plan encouraged studying how a building touches the ground, the skyline and what happens in the middle. Four different box rib patterns in the Dark Bronze metal panels from Petersen Aluminum Corp., Tyler, Texas, allowed the designers to offset the patterns, articulating the building’s base, middle and top.
Patterns in the ribbed metal panels create texture, while a change in the pattern’s rhythm marks the transition from one section to the other. The Dark Bronze color of the metal panels complement the master plan palette, while a perforated box rib metal scrim, located at the main entry plaza, mimics the expression of the adjacent live oak trees. Two different profiles and perforation sizes extend the façade’s visual rhythm, shading the entry plaza and glazing of the courts and lobby.
Photo: Wade Griffith
“The variety of panels creates an energetic pattern across the façade, accurately reflecting the kinetic movement of the live oaks outside and the fitness activity inside,” Nagy adds. “This varied pattern extends to other materials in the building façade, such as the vertical frit patterns on the glass and the horizontal reveals in the limestone.”
As the ribbed metal panels extend beyond the building envelope, Nagy says there’s a transition to perforated panels to balance shading, views, texture and depth in the façade. Additionally, single-skin metal panels stretch the investment of the building to achieve more outdoor amenities, including a terrace, two volleyball courts and a turf area for fitness classes and functional training. The 12-inch-wide panels clad stretches of the façade that enclose the large high bay for strength and conditioning and for the courts.
Nagy says the building is a reminder that great design does not need to be complicated or extravagant. “It’s a shining example of the power of simplicity and how an economical and common material thoughtfully designed to work with campus context can result in a truly beautiful outcome.”