Colorado State University-Pueblo Student Recreation Center
Pueblo, Colorado
Situated between the administration building and student union, and overlooking the new football stadium to the east, the new Student Recreation Center occupies a key south-facing transitional site on the east edge of the Colorado State University-Pueblo Main Campus. With its terraced mass, the design of the recreation center capitalizes on the prominent hillside site as a crossroads of the student life experience and the academic core.
The 43,000-square-foot, two-story building adjoins the existing Massari Arena to the north, allowing shared use of the natatorium, racquetball courts, training/rehab area and a climbing wall. Its transparent, two-story main entry offers a panoramic view of the Front Range and Pikes Peak, while the triple-height volume of the atrium allows visitors and users to experience the building’s energetic, community-oriented environment.
Daylight filters through clerestories into the main gymnasium, the elevated running track that circulates through the atrium, the fitness center and multipurpose rooms. A simplified materials palette of precast concrete, glazing and a water-table course of cast-in-place concrete provides the campus with a neutral mix of exterior materials that complement the clean, modern buildings rising out of the natural, arid Pueblo landscape.
In addition to its recreation offerings, the center provides a health, wellness and nutritional suite, a lounge/café with a south-facing exterior terrace and an outdoor activities program and equipment rental space. Services for this project included architecture and interior design, sports consulting and master planning. HGF Architects served as the Architect of Record.
Recognition: Athletic Business 2010 Architectural Showcase; Colorado Construction 2009 Bronze Hard Hat – Outstanding Education / Research Project; Colorado Construction Magazine 2008 Bronze Hard Hat Award for Outstanding Architectural Design Project