Sited on property once belonging to a historic farmstead, the Stephen D. Persinger Community Recreation Center expresses a barn theme through creative and colorful exterior and interior design. The rustic-looking facility pays homage to the area’s rural past, while housing modern amenities — including basketball and volleyball courts, a running track, a 4,000-square-foot fitness center, locker rooms, dance/aerobics space and multipurpose rooms — that promote a range of sports and recreation activities.
Sustainable design applications include passive solar energy; occupancy sensors on artificial lighting; linoleum created from natural linseed oil; carpeting made with recycled, post-consumer content and installed without applying adhesive; rough-cut, unfinished glass light frames requiring a reduced level of processing in manufacture; and recyclable metal wall panels. In addition, salvaged barn siding was used in the recreation center’s interior.
The building’s frame of recycled steel, part of the pre-engineered metal building system chosen for cost-effectiveness and durability, was seen as another excellent means by which to express the barn vernacular. The system’s metal panels mimic the board-and-batten siding seen on traditional barns. Other design devices contributing to the rural aesthetic include sliding barn doors, a real grain silo that conceals a stairway, and real barn ventilators on the roof that provide ventilation for the gymnasium’s clerestory window component.
Cassie Campbell Community Centre
