Sports Complex Extension Enhances Exterior Circulation

Cutting corners is sometimes a good thing.

[Photo by Anton Grass]Students at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., have historically migrated from their residences to the rest of campus along a wooded path, and college administrators wanted that tradition preserved even as plans were in the works to extend the Sally Blair Ames Sports Complex in the path's direction. Architects from Sasaki in nearby Watertown blunted the far corner of the ground level's footprint, leaving the glass-enclosed second level to shelter the passage and form both a social gathering place for students and a game-day portal for football players emerging from the extension's new locker rooms. "We opened a part of the building on the first level to create a gateway that preserves the pass and circulation where it was and creates an experience as you come through it that introduces the building," says Sasaki principal Bill Massey. "Basically we just protected — and I would say enhanced — that walkway."

This article originally appeared in the October 2018 issue of Athletic Business with the title "Building footprint blunted to preserve walking path" Athletic Business is a free magazine for professionals in the athletic, fitness and recreation industry. Click here to subscribe.