Saint Paul Tennis Club

St. Paul, MN
Construction Cost: Confidential
Area / Square Feet: 1,600 SF
Occupancy Date: May 2018

The Saint Paul Tennis Club is a private neighborhood club that was founded in 1912. The design team worked with club membership to replace their existing buildings with new expanded facilities that retain the quiet, understated presence of the original buildings, while providing a contemporary fresh appeal and solving accessibility issues. The existing buildings were deteriorating — the bathhouse was nearly unusable — and most of the site was inaccessible to those with disabilities. The new club facilities rectify these limitations.

The new facilities are comprised of two parts: a bathhouse with accessible toilets, showers, lockers and a mechanical room; and a clubhouse with a check-in area, a manager’s office, and a community room with direct access to a poolside patio. Members enter the pool area through a gateway between the two buildings. An exterior stair leads to a rooftop deck, with views to the 25-yard pool and tennis courts.

The small scale of the bathhouse and clubhouse allows them to blend into the surrounding residential neighborhood. Quiet outdoor gathering spaces — so important to the membership — are located near the building’s main entry and community room. Members can read the paper and drink coffee in the seating area near the bathhouse or under the trellis in the poolside space near the community room. Exterior materials include Hardie board lap, shingle and board-and-batten siding in deep green to blend with the tennis courts, as well as bright white with blue and green accent colors as a nod to tennis whites and swimming. Glass railings on the upper deck allow clear sightlines to the courts and pool. A steel and cedar trellis extends over the poolside patio, and cables are incorporated into the trellis and at planting beds around the building to train vines and create a vertical green space to blur the boundaries of indoor and outdoor spaces.