Brown University’s new aquatics center provides much-needed athletic facilities and defines one side of a new landscaped quadrangle at the gateway to the evolving Erickson Athletic Complex.
The building is composed of three distinctly articulated parts. The head house, facing Hope Street and scaled to relate to the surrounding residential neighborhood, houses the Nelson Fitness Center, a 10,000-
square-foot multipurpose fitness loft. The David J. Zucconi ’55 Varsity Strength and Conditioning Center faces the playing fields to the east. Bracketed between these two wings is the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center, with a 56-meter pool equipped for one- and three-meter diving and set one level below grade to reduce building mass. With 168 rectangular solar panels, the aquatic center’s roof represents the largest hybrid solar-powered electrical and heating installation in the United States, generating enough power to light the building and heat its million-gallon pool.
This signature-style building utilized locally sourced materials with recycled content. The original cupola from Brown’s Frederick Marvel Gymnasium (1927), carefully preserved when the gymnasium was demolished in 2002, was remounted atop the Nelson Fitness Center. Diaper-pattern brickwork provides relief to the facade, while the north and east facades are outfitted in stucco panels.
Bradford West Gwillimbury Leisure Centre
