This addition and renovation greatly expands the existing recreational opportunities for Baldwin-Wallace students. Recreation programs utilizing the existing field house, gym, weight rooms and offices had long ago outgrown their 1980s-era home. The additions more than double the size of existing fitness spaces and open up the facility to allow abundant natural light in previously windowless areas.
The program also renovates existing classrooms, meeting spaces, and formal and informal lounges, and provides new offices for faculty, staff and coaches. A new front door to campus along a major boulevard was created by pulling the entrance back from the street, which allowed space for a future courtyard and put the focus on a towering glass-encased fitness space.
All main entrances were converted from formerly hard-to-find dark inset doors into new outward focal points, enhancing safety and wayfinding. The use of different glass colors, frits and low-E coatings at entrances enhance the facility’s appeal. Moreover, the curving glass entrances are inviting and introduce natural light to the building cores. Brick and metal panels help give the large building masses a pedestrian scale, and masonry banding and brick soldier courses visually tie the additions into an ensemble.
Inside, three lounge spaces offer students space to socialize and infuse life into the facility. In addition, paint and color schemes, carpeting and ceilings were updated throughout to freshen the facility’s look.
2007 Canada Games Centre
