From the first days of planning through the project’s current design stage, the Student Recreation Center has involved the input of STUDENTS in the forefront.

The project’s program planning committee, which included students, faculty, and staff members as representatives, identified seven foundational principles to guide the development of the Recreation Center’s Design and Construction.

These Seven Principles Include:

1. Designing for Flexibility
Areas of the facility originally planned for specific activities may need to be adapted as campus needs and/or fitness trends change. Facility design and planning techniques should anticipate this need for flexibility where practical. Placement of wiring/ports for telephone, data, and electrical should be factored into this need for flexibility.

2. Use of Open Design Techniques
Encourage the use of architectural design techniques that create open spaces, in which activity spaces are highly visible and identifiable, creating visual points of interest. The goal of this open design should be to visually “tell the story of the Student Recreation Center” to those passing by, entering, and/or navigating the building.

3. Commitment to Quality Materials and Equipment
Specify the use of quality building materials, equipment, and furnishings throughout the facility. While the use of quality materials, equipment, and furnishings may result in higher initial construction and equipment costs, feedback from other facility operators demonstrates the benefits in terms of: less frequent replacement cycles; reduced equipment down time and repair cost; greater end-user satisfaction; and higher appearance standards.

4. Use of Natural Lighting and Natural Materials
Feedback included repeated positive references to the use of effective lighting features and/or incorporating natural light. Use of natural materials (unpainted cinderblock, stone, earth-tone tiles, etc.) generated greater positive feedback over the use of other interior design techniques.

5. Quality Changing Rooms
In the assignment of building square footage, the locker room/shower areas should be functional but not oversized. However, feedback indicated a desire to program in locker room “creature comforts” including: individual shower stalls; well lit vanity areas; hair dryers; and potentially even sauna features.

6. Including Gathering Spaces
Program plan should include some “gathering place” elements. Whether in the form of social lounge space and/or an inviting outdoor space with tables and chairs, non-workout gathering place features should be included in the plan. Feedback indicated that areas designed for this social gathering function should not include workout activity functions.

7. Assigning Priority to a Large Fitness Room
Sufficient building square footage should be assigned to the weight training/cardio fitness room. Many committee members provided feedback indicating that other facilities underestimated the need and square footage assignments of this core-element of their respective facilities.