Studio Gang Architects will convert power plant into college recreation center

Beloit College announced that it has selected Studio Gang Architects to lead the conversion of a century-old power plant along the Rock River riverfront in Wisconsin.

The school’s board of trustees approved the selection on Saturday after a series of updates regarding the power plant’s sale from Alliant Energy to the college. If all goes well, the school said in a release that Alliant Energy would formalize a transition of the property in 2016.

The release reveals that a “selection committee comprised of Beloit trustees, staff, faculty, and students selected Studio Gang for their creativity, talent, vision, and care, but most of all—their enthusiasm for approaching this project as both collaborator and partner, learner and leader.”

According to designboom, the power plant will be converted into a recreation facility with a coffee shop, lounges, club rooms, a conference center, lecture hall, and theater.

In addition, a sporting facility will also be housed in the building, equipped with a three-lane track, eight-lane competition swimming pool with seating for 250 spectators, a 10,000-sf fitness center, and a 17,000-sf gymnasium.

Alliant Energy's Blackhawk Generating Station, here flanked (left) by Beloit College's Aldrich Residence Hall and Center for the Sciences (right). The cupola of the college's Middle College administration building is visible to the far right. Photo credit: Trevor Johnson.

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