George S. Eccles Student Center, University of Utah

Salt Lake City, UT
Construction Cost: $41.4 million
Area / Square Feet: 168,000
Occupancy Date: December 2014

The new playful and uplifting Student Life Center at the University of Utah is inspired by its surroundings — predominantly a desert. The color scheme is mostly orange and red hues from the landscape to the south, and the angular surfaces throughout the facility are a nod to the rock formations in the red rock deserts.

The new building joins previously disparate Campus Recreation Services into a single building. The recreation center features a natatorium with 50-meter lap pool, leisure pool and whirlpool. The 17,000-square-foot two-level fitness center contains cardio equipment, weight machines and free weights. Other spaces include a three-court gym with a suspended track, a two-court auxiliary gym, bouldering and a four-story climbing wall, racquetball courts, four group fitness studios, a combative room, locker rooms and offices. The signature design feature repeated throughout the space is a copper-pipe and stainless-steel-bar art piece. The art is first seen extending two stories above the entry fireplace, and again in the natatorium and behind the retail desk.

The exterior, meanwhile, is a combination of metal panel, terra cotta rain screen and glazed aluminum curtain wall. Ceramic frit patterns on the glazing in several gray shades and white add a playful dynamic to the fenestration.