Stephen D. Persinger Community Recreation Center
Geneva, Ill.
Year in Showcase: 2009
Project Description
Sited on property once belonging to a historic farmstead, the Stephen D. Persinger Community Recreation Center expresses a barn theme through creative and colorful exterior and interior design. The rustic-looking facility pays homage to the area’s rural past, while housing modern amenities — including basketball and volleyball courts, a running track, a 4,000-square-foot fitness center, locker rooms, dance/aerobics space and multipurpose rooms — that promote a range of sports and recreation activities.
Sustainable design applications include passive solar energy; occupancy sensors on artificial lighting; linoleum created from natural linseed oil; carpeting made with recycled, post-consumer content and installed without applying adhesive; rough-cut, unfinished glass light frames requiring a reduced level of processing in manufacture; and recyclable metal wall panels. In addition, salvaged barn siding was used in the recreation center’s interior.
The building’s frame of recycled steel, part of the pre-engineered metal building system chosen for cost-effectiveness and durability, was seen as another excellent means by which to express the barn vernacular. The system’s metal panels mimic the board-and-batten siding seen on traditional barns. Other design devices contributing to the rural aesthetic include sliding barn doors, a real grain silo that conceals a stairway, and real barn ventilators on the roof that provide ventilation for the gymnasium’s clerestory window component.
Project Details
Architect of Record: Williams Architects; Carol Stream, Ill.
Construction Cost: $8 million
Square Feet: 48,450
Occupancy: September 2008
Vendors
Basketball Backboards/Supports:
Porter Athletic Inc.
Divider Curtains:
Porter Athletic Inc.
Dryers:
Dexter Laundry Inc.
Elliptical Equipment:
Life Fitness
Floor Finishes:
Action Floor Systems LLC
Flooring, Aerobics:
Action Floor Systems LLC
Flooring, Fitness Center:
Johnsonite
Lockers:
Hollman Inc.
Pre-Engineered:
Varco-Pruden Buildings
Scoreboards/Timing Systems:
Daktronics Inc.
Surfaces, Basketball:
Action Floor Systems LLC
Surfaces, Track:
Robbins Sports Surfaces
Volleyball Nets and Standards:
Porter Athletic Inc.
Wall Padding:
Porter Athletic Inc.
Washers:
Dexter Laundry Inc.
