You make your way into the park. Step by step, you enter the field and see that you are surrounded by a woodland landscape of lush, vibrant trees.…
Over the years locker rooms and other sports and recreation spaces have changed dramatically to reflect evolving program needs and end-user preferences.…
From zip-lines to climbing walls to spa and saunas, the trends that make your aquatic center stand out are always evolving. It can be hard to keep track of the current trends in aquatic design, let alone look forward to the future.…
Conversations About Campus Rec Trends and Predictions for the Future.
Building a facility specifically for recreation was a novel concept when St. Louis University’s campus recreation center was named an Athletic Business Facility of Merit® in 1982. In the 35 years since, the definition of “recreation” and its place in the college landscape has changed dramatically, as evidenced in AB’s collective roster of Facilities of Merit.…
The surge in environmental awareness at colleges and universities nationwide corresponds with increased interest in outdoor adventures programs. On the whole, though, outdoor programs exist in found space on most campuses, and not much of it — 3,000 square feet tucked into the lower level of the recreation center, perhaps, with lack of visibility and storage being ongoing issues.…
“To measure is to know. If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.” – Lord Kelvin. This same thinking can be applied to the built environment and the design process to attain maximum operation results.
The diagram below identifies the 4 steps to achieve high performance design and the goals associated with each step.…
Based upon a recent user survey conducted by RDG and Athletic Business magazine, the future as seen for collegiate rec indicates movement toward a technologically advanced but individualized campus recreation center experience. The years that separate a building’s initial planning and its completion make it imperative that owners and architects are accurately able to forcast for future trends” ..…
Jack Patton, director of RDG’s sports studio, explains how aquatic facilities are a huge growth area in College Recreation. Particularly leisure pools, with lazy river rides, slides, zip lines and climbing walls. A lot of students don’t want to swim laps, but a leisure pool is a great equalizer: I can get my toes wet, I can play, I can study, I can watch a movie, I can socialize.…
“Everybody keeps pushing the edges on student recreation building” says Al Oberlander, principal and COO at Des Moines, Iowa-based RDG Planning & Design. “Its ‘what can we do that will separate our building and how can it tell a story about what goes on inside?’”…
More schools are realizing that student health and student recreation can be compatible cohabitants under one campus-wellness roof.
Vibrant student recreation centers have become mainstays of contemporary college campuses. So have health-conscious students. To take full advantage of these trends, many institutions are merging their recreation center and student health center into a single facility.…
