Student Recreation Center and McCormick Hall Renovation Illinois State University

Normal, Ill.
Construction Cost: $49.6 million
Area / Square Feet: 187,295
Occupancy Date: January 2011

The Illinois State University Student Fitness Center and McCormick Hall provides a home for the School of Kinesiology and Recreation and the Recreation Services Department, as well as several new wellness partners. Offices to support the wellness, nutrition and nursing programs are located near the main west entrance. These programs utilize many areas in the building for their educational, training, counseling and informational services.

Throughout three stories of recreation and academic space, the interior architecture enhances the ability of users to visually experience program areas, while creating many highly social areas. The customer service desk in the main west lobby offers dramatic views into multiple spaces, including the pool, climbing wall, juice bar, academic classrooms, gymnasium courts, weight and fitness rooms, aerobics room and elevated track.

The building’s exterior preserves many components of the older collegiate Georgian character of campus, while boldly interpreting that character into a newly formed composition. On the southwest corner of the site, the building’s vocabulary breaks down and blends into a more contemporary expression. The sloped roofs formulate a dynamic image, and the building’s form ties more directly to the outdoor area to the southeast. Extensive use of glass provides connection between indoor space and out.

The largest building project ever undertaken by the university, the building extends across University Street, connecting at the new addition to McCormick Hall. Several administrative, learning and instructional spaces are added in a new west addition to McCormick, enhancing its connectivity to the rest of the building.