Steven Holl Architects celebrates the completion of the Campbell Sports Center, Columbia University’s new training and teaching facility.
Located on the corner of West 218th street and Broadway—the northernmost edge of Manhattan, where Broadway crosses with Tenth Avenue and the elevated tracks of the 1 subway line—the Campbell Sports Center forms a new gateway to the Baker Athletics Complex, the primary athletics facility for Columbia University’s outdoor sports program.
The first new athletics building to be constructed on Columbia University's campus since the Marcellus Hartley Dodge Physical Fitness Center was built in the mid-1970s, the Campbell Sports Center is the cornerstone of the revitalized Baker Athletics Complex and provides increased program space for the entire intercollegiate athletics program. The facility, which adds approximately 48,000 square foot of space, houses strength and conditioning spaces, offices for varsity sports, theater-style meeting rooms, a hospitality suite and student-athlete study rooms.
The Campbell Sports Center, designed by Steven Holl and Chris McVoy, aims at serving the mind, the body and the mind/body for aspiring scholar-athletes. The design concept “points on the ground, lines in space”—like field play diagrams used for football, soccer, and baseball—develops from point foundations on the sloping site. Just as points and lines in diagrams yield the physical push and pull on the field, the building’s elevations push and pull in space.
A piece of the urban infrastructure, rather than an isolated building, the Campbell Sports Center shapes an urban corner on Broadway and 218th street, then lifts up to form a portal, connecting the playing field with the streetscape. Extending over a stepped landscape, blue soffits heighten the openness of the urban scale portico to the Baker Athletics Complex. Terraces and external stairs, which serve as “lines in space,” draw the field play onto and into the building and give views from the upper levels over the field and Manhattan.
With an exposed concrete and steel structure and a sanded aluminum facade, the building connects back to Baker Field's unique history. In 1693, The Kings Bridge, which spanned the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, was the main access route into Manhattan. The current infrastructure of Broadway Bridge carries the elevated subway, and Broadway, with a lift capacity of hundreds of tons. Its detail and structure are reflected in the Campbell Sports Center.
Related Stories
| Oct 10, 2013
Behind the scenes at the U40 Summit: See the $5,000 U40 Vision competition in progress [slideshow]
Sixty-five up-and-coming AEC leaders are battling for $5,000 in prizes today at BD+C's Under 40 Leadership Summit in San Francisco.
| Oct 10, 2013
Arthur Gensler to architects: Don't give away your ideas
The founder of Gensler advises dozens of up-and-coming AEC professionals at BD+C's Under 40 Leadership Summit in San Francisco.
| Oct 9, 2013
From power plant to office: Ambler Boiler House conversion
The shell of a 19th-century industrial plant is converted into three levels of modern office space.
| Oct 7, 2013
10 award-winning metal building projects
The FDNY Fireboat Firehouse in New York and the Cirrus Logic Building in Austin, Texas, are among nine projects named winners of the 2013 Chairman’s Award by the Metal Construction Association for outstanding design and construction.
| Oct 7, 2013
Progressive steel joist and metal decking design [AIA course]
This three-part course takes a building owner’s perspective on the range of cost and performance improvements that are possible when using a more design-analytical and collaborative approach to steel joist and metal decking construction.
Sponsored | | Oct 7, 2013
Bridging the digital divide between the BIM haves and have nots
There's no doubt that BIM is the future of design. But for many firms, finding a bridge to access rich model data and share it with those typically left on the sidelines can be the difference between winning a bid or not.
| Oct 7, 2013
How to streamline your operations
The average U.S. office worker generates two pounds of paper each day, according to the EPA. Ninety percent of that trash is made up of printed materials: marketing reports, project drafts, copy machine mistakes, and unwanted mail. Here are a few ways AEC firms can streamline their management processes.
| Oct 7, 2013
Reimagining the metal shipping container
With origins tracing back to the mid-1950s, the modern metal shipping container continues to serve as a secure, practical vessel for transporting valuable materials. However, these reusable steel boxes have recently garnered considerable attention from architects and constructors as attractive building materials.
| Oct 4, 2013
Sydney to get world's tallest 'living' façade
The One Central Park Tower development consists of two, 380-foot-tall towers covered in a series of living walls and vertical gardens that will extend the full height of the buildings.
| Oct 4, 2013
Nifty video shows planned development of La Sagrada Familia basilica
After 144 years, construction on Gaudi's iconic Barcelona edifice is picking up speed, with a projected end date of 2026.