Ithaca College Athletics and Events Center

Ithaca, N.Y.
Construction Cost: $55 million
Area / Square Feet: 179,000
Occupancy Date: August 2011

Ithaca College's Athletics and Events Center incorporates a field house, natatorium and outdoor turf field to meet the practice, competition, intramural, club and recreational needs of as many students as possible. The facility was positioned to anchor the eastern edge of campus and make good use of the existing hilly topography for a fully accessible facility. To maximize shared infrastructure and circulation efficiency, the field house was set down one level from the campus entry to reduce the project scale.

The warm tones and textures of the exterior stone of the entry plazas and building facade extend to the stained concrete main hall and main circulation floors. The wood panel-detailed wall and wood-slatted ceiling in the main hall add an inviting touch, and random control jointing and layout reflects the nature of the wooded surrounding environment.

The skin of the building includes three types of metal panels to provide variation in texture, finish, patterning and economy. The majority of the building enclosure system uses three lighter shades of color to provide texture along the face of the building. Cues from the surrounding wooded landscape were used to address the mass of the overall complex, and vertical blue fin elements offer a rhythm to break up the mass along the field house and pool, visually reducing the perceived length.