University of Kansas - Booth Family Hall of Athletics Addition

Lawrence, KS
Construction Cost: $6.59 million
Area / Square Feet: 27,130
Occupancy Date: January 2006

The goal for the new Booth Family Hall of Athletics was to pay tribute to the 100-year-plus history of University of Kansas athletics. The most fitting place for this project was as an addition to the famed Allen Fieldhouse, the 52-year-old home of KU basketball.

The challenge was to create a new front door to the Fieldhouse without disturbing its iconic nature. The Hall of Athletics houses more than 600 athletics-related artifacts in custom-designed display cases. It also has an expanded team store and dedicated rooms for VIP functions and recruitment meetings.

Appropriate scaling of the sweeping, curved glass facade minimizes the impact of the addition to the existing Fieldhouse. The design team also used a similar palette of exterior materials on the Hall of Athletics, replicating the Fieldhouse?s original blue doors and cladding the addition in Manhattan white limestone from the same quarry that supplied the original building.

Interior finishes complement the dominant nature of the displays? colors and graphics. The roof structure above the hall floor was left exposed and painted dark to increase the sense of height and provide a grand scale. Where the hall joins with the Fieldhouse?s exterior wall, the existing stone was left exposed and provides visual connection to the original building, reinforcing the notion that the original Fieldhouse remains unaltered.