The designs for ASU’s Downtown campus student recreation center were presented to some students and administrators Friday, giving members of the campus their first look at the $20 million project.
While the design is not finalized – it still has to go through various government bodies that could alter it – the finished project will likely be very similar to the current design.
The five-floor structure has nearly everything students were asking for through the facility fee board, said Dana Dixon, an ASU architect working on the project. This design includes a pair of basketball courts, cardio equipment, multi-purpose rooms and a highly requested rooftop pool.
There is also space for an indoor track wrapping above the basketball courts if enough funds are available at the end of the project.
“This is going to be a dynamic, cool place,” lead architect Jan Lorant said. “It is the students’ facility.”
The new building will sit directly south of the Lincoln Family Downtown YMCA on First Avenue and will connect to that building. There will also be a patio between the two buildings with some outdoor seating.
The ground floor will consist of mostly cardio equipment with some room for stretching. Essentially, the ground floor of the SRC will be a continuation of the YMCA’s ground floor.
The second floor of the SRC will house a few multi-purpose rooms as well as some academic space primarily for College of Nursing and Health Innovation classes. The academic rooms were a late addition to the building’s design and were not in the original plans.
The need for the rooms arose when some College of Nursing and Health Innovation classes moved from the Polytechnic campus to the Downtown campus, specifically kinesiology courses.
Dixon said it made sense to have classes held in the SRC that could relate to exercise. However, students aren’t footing the bill for these rooms through their facilities fee. Instead, the University paid for this space.
The two basketball courts fill most of the third floor, with some space off to the side for a “staging area” for people waiting to play. Students will also be able to put up volleyball courts in the gym.
Lorant said the courts could turn into the campus “assembly hall,” since it will be able to accommodate seating for up to 450 people.
The fourth floor may or may not happen based on available funds near the end of the project, Lorant said. An indoor track would wrap above the basketball courts, allowing students to look down onto the courts.
The top floor will hold a pool, an amenity widely requested by students on campus.
The pool will include a lounging area, with water six to 12 inches deep, along with a space for water volleyball and basketball. In addition, much of the seating on the roof is expected to face south, making sunbathing easier for students. There also could be a pool house on the roof, if there is extra money at the end of the project’s construction.
Some administrators expressed concerned about the height of the glass barrier around the perimeter of the roof, but the architects reminded the group that this is a preliminary design that will be slightly adapted over the next several months.
The design itself will make the SRC dramatically stand out from its neighboring buildings.
“This is the Downtown campus,” Lorant said. “We want to reflect that, and I think this building does this.”
The building’s design is boxy with a solid and modern feel, contrasting the “Her Secret is Patience” sculpture that hangs above Civic Space Park.
The First Avenue side of the building has floor-to-ceiling glass windows and pillars creating an open feel where the architects hope students will hang out.
The long horizontal window on the third floor is slanted toward the YMCA, which the architects said is an attempt to create a feeling of unity between the YMCA and the SRC.
There was some talk during the first meeting with students and administrators in May about making the new building only available for students, or having the ground floor public and rest of the building private to students.
However, as the project developed, it was decided that the relationship with the YMCA was too valuable to constrict use of the new building. All floors will be available to non-students, with the exception of the pool area.
Georgeana Montoya, dean of students for the Downtown campus, said the relationship with the YMCA is good for everyone, but there were consistent concerns with allowing anyone access to the pool.
Construction of the SRC is expected to begin early during the spring semester and be completed no later than May 2013.
Digital renderings of the designs are being presented to the facility fee board and student government for the first time on Wednesday.
Contact the reporter at connor.radnovich@asu.edu
