The Baltimore Ravens’ Under Armour Performance Center stands as proof that renovation can be both expeditious and elegant. Completed in just over a year, the project created a ground-floor hydrotherapy suite that necessitated excavating space below grade for pool mechanicals. Left with less time than typical to finish the interior, designers opted for a ceiling treatment that allowed for the quickest installation. Clipped-in metal panels would have required precise on-site measuring and a potentially months-long wait for custom manufacturing, and drywall could have entailed weeks of repeated taping, mudding and sanding. Instead, Thermory brand thermally modified Magnolia wood — normally supplied for sauna construction — allowed Baltimore-based contractor Whiting-Turner to make real-time trimming adjustments of the wood to fit during installation. It also provided the room with both a low-maintenance solution (no annual sealing with booms or scaffolding over pool surfaces) and a signature aesthetic that covers some 6,000 square feet, including up the full height of a new two-story skylight. The space meets the Ravens’ needs in terms of recovery amenities — a HydroWorx 2000 pool with movable floor and built-in treadmill, a group rehab/lap pool, and hot and cold plunge pools, not to mention actual saunas constructed with the same wood — while looking and feeling more like a high-end spa than a sports medicine destination. “The players love it. They spend so much more time in here because it’s a nice space to be in,” says ZGF architect Brian Earle. “We wanted to bring some warmth into the space, so we were looking at alternatives. What’s something that we can install quickly and make adjustments in the field? Thermally modified wood is kiln heated to make it super dense and strong in a way that makes it safe to use in a hot, humid, caustic environment. It’s not going to change shape or warp or mildew, because it’s used in saunas. And the beauty is you can still cut it with a saw and clip it into place. It was a clever solution — at least in our thinking. It’s something that normally you use in a very small space, but they were able to install this entire ceiling in days.”
