The UAB Campus Recreation Center, a 152,000-square-foot facility, serves as a vibrant activity hub for the campus, promotes health and fitness for the entire campus community, and acts as a cornerstone of the future campus green. The jogging track is the defining architectural feature of the building. Passing through every major interior space, it also penetrates the north and west facades, affording joggers views of the surrounding campus context and beyond to the mountains bracketing the city to the south. Also, the complex features a large expanse of exterior glass that provides a view of all activities taking place inside the center. This visual connection to the exterior reinforces the design focus of the youthful, active and vibrant functioning of the building.

The UAB Recreation Center serves as a vibrant activity hub for the campus community. From the open elevator shaft to the functional interior finishes, the idea of motion and activity are reinforced at every vista. A view down the main corridor allows one to see the pristine wood flooring of the four-court gymnasium and racquetball courts, the sheet rubber flooring and carpet tiles of a two-story fitness area, the poured rubber flooring in the multi-purpose gymnasium and the patterned stained flooring of the corridor itself. While a look through the glass curtain wall provides a view to the 10,000 square-foot natatorium below. Overhead is an elliptical jogging track that passes through every major space engaging runners in all activities of the building.

Completion

2005

Size

152,000 SF

Services

Architecture
Interior Design

Awards

Merit Award, Institutional
AIA, Alabama

Honor Award, Institutional
AIA, Birmingham

Innovative Architecture and Design
Recreation Mgmt. Magazine