UFCU Alumni Gym
PHOTOGRAPHY: Leonid Furmansky
PROJECT TEAM
Mell Lawrence Architects: Mell Lawrence, Krista Whitson
The university wanted to renovate the existing 1950 Alumni Gym on St. Edwards Campus, while retaining the building’s familiar character for returning alumni. They also wanted to modernize and renovate the entire structure to house a lobby, gym space, restrooms, offices, and fitness studio, as well as introduce climate controls for the first time.
To address this, we redirected the new entry porch and lobby away from the adjacent parking lot so that it could connect to the main lawn. We also removed the top seven feet of brick along the length of the north face of the gymnasium in order to add clerestory windows, and subsequently natural daylight at the interior. A new 19’ tall wood wall wraps all sides of the gym in order to hide the existing troublesome walls, screen the new mechanical system, and provide storage space. Lastly, we whitewashed all possible interior surfaces.