Missouri, Wisconsin Projects

Athletic Centers Lure Students to Colleges

by Pamela Dittmer McKuen

Colleges and universities across the country are ramping up their recreational facilities for serious athletes and fitness buffs alike.

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Call it the trickle-down effect, says architect Erik Kocher, whose St. Louis-based firm, Hastings & Chivetta Architects, specializes in the field.

"It used to be the best facilities were only for the big national Division I universities, but now everyone, from top to bottom, is feeling the pressure to have quality facilities for all students," he says. "The trend is one that I believe will continue to sustain itself for quite some time."

Two student sports center projects currently under construction in the Midwest are the Chaifetz Arena at St. Louis University and Kress Center at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay. Both are Division I schools.

Student demand for upgraded facilities is a huge motivator, Kocher says.

They've seen other clubs, courts and arenas in their hometowns or during their travels, and they expect campus amenities to compare favorably.

"As an architect, I wouldn't use the word 'lavish,'" Kocher says. "But it does seem as though the bar goes up every five years. Fifteen years ago, facilities were built to serve the need. Now they serve the need and attract not only students but perhaps paying customers and the community."

Sports facilities, which are designed for team practice and competitive play, often are paid for by the sale of naming rights. Fitness centers, which are similar to health clubs, tend to be financed through increased student fees.

Larger schools usually have separate facilities for each type of activity, while smaller ones pair the two in a single building.

Chaifetz Arena Brings Change

The current athletic building at St. Louis University was built in 1920, long before the days of air conditioning.

The men's and women's basketball teams practice in the old building, and the women's team plays games there. The men-and their fans-shuttle to downtown St. Louis.

That's about to change when Chaifetz Arena, an on-campus, 10,600-seat, multipurpose sports facility for student and nonstudent athletes is completed.

Although first and foremost a home court for the Billiken basketball teams, it also includes areas for practice, training and sports medicine; athletic department offices; kitchen for food service and catering; club seating and 12 viewing suites. Completion is scheduled for spring 2008.

The indoor, 270,000-sq-ft arena will improve campus life for the school's 11,000 students, help recruit competitive athletes and build relationships between the university and surrounding community, says Jeff Fowler, associate vice president for marketing and communications and former arena project manager and vice president of communications. Students will not have to go as far as they current do to watch games, and the university has the prestige of an on-campus facility.

"It's a facility where students can walk to see concerts and other events," he says.

Ground was broken August 2006 with St. Louis-based Clayco serving as general contractor.

Tom Sieckhaus, Clayco vice president and project executive, says the job started with extensive excavation, which he described as digging a big bowl and creating a ski slope around you and backfilling as the structure goes up.

"You're also setting a lot of the building from inside out rather than from the outside," he adds.

One bonus: adjacent to the site is a university-owned apartment building, and Clayco is using one of the apartments as a management office. After the arena is finished, the apartment building will be town down.

"It saved a lot of money because we don't have to worry about trailers and services," Sieckhaus says. "People can spread out and have meetings."

The vision for the project goes back perhaps two decades and many design changes until late 2005, when the present incarnation was finalized. The cost is $80.5 million, which includes an audio and video scoreboard system.

Of that amount, $39 million is coming from private fundraising, $8 million from tax-increment financing and the balance from a bond issuance. Alumnus Dr.

Richard Chaifetz donated $12 million for naming rights. The university plans to defray costs by renting out the facility for concerts, conferences and trade shows and other events.

The brick masonry building is sheathed in large expanses of glass, even more so on the sides that face the intersection of Compton Avenue and Interstate 64/Highway 40into St. Louis.

"At night when the lights are turned on, it's going to be a real beacon," Fowler says.

Kress Events Center

An athletic facility of 1970s vintage is undergoing massive expansion at the University of Wisconsin's Green Bay campus. When completed later this year, the rehabbed and renamed Kress Events Center will serve numerous sports, fitness and events functions for its 5,800 students. Previously, the facility was known as the Phoenix Sports Center.

The project more than doubles the existing space to 174,000 sq ft. Within its confines are such new or improved amenities as bowl seating for 4,000 around a main court that will be home for women's basketball and volleyball teams; auxiliary court; racquet courts; cardiovascular and aerobic facilities; and swimming and diving pools.

Ground was broken late 2005 and construction is ahead of schedule. The building exterior is brick masonry interspersed with planes and ribbons of glass. Walls of glass wrap much of the fitness center and two entrances.

Clerestory windows ribbon the building at roof height, making the roof appear as though it is floating.

"One of the things we're trying to do with glass is let students see what is going on inside so they get the sense that something is happening on campus," says Dean Rodeheaver, the university's assistant chancellor for planning and budget.

Also remarkable from a design standpoint is the standing-seam metal roof, constructed from interlocking panels that run vertically from ridge to eave.

Here, the spans are up to 300 ft in length, says Alex Santos, senior project manager for general contractor Miron Construction of Neenah, Wis.

"Once the roof structure and decking were up, the next challenge was how do we get equipment in there to do (interior) overhead work, like painting and fire sprinkler and HVAC and then get it out again," Santos says.

The solution was to enlarge a lower-level entrance for boom access, and then block up the space after it was no longer needed, he adds.

The cost of the project is $32.5 million. To reach that amount, $15 million will come from increased student fees, $7.5 million from the state of Wisconsin and the remainder from private donors, including a naming rights gift from the George F. Kress Foundation.

"We intend to do concerts and graduation activities, but renting it out to someone is a relatively low priority for us," Rodeheaver says. "Student use is most important to us."

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