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.
Related Stories
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
Multifaced fitness center becomes campus landmark
A sloped running track and open-concept design put this Building Team to the test.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
Nation's first LEED-certified bus depot
A bus garage in Harlem shows that even the most mundane of facilities can strut its environmentally sensitive stuff.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
Setting the bar for port-of-entry design
Whenever you eat a tomato from Mexico, there’s a one-in-three chance it came through this LEED Gold gateway.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
Big D’s billion-dollar baby: New Parkland Hospital Tops the Chart | BD+C
Dallas’s new $1.27 billion public hospital preserves an important civic anchor, Texas-style.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
IPD-driven fusion facility serves science and student life in Chicago
In dire need of modern science labs and a student union, North Park University built both—in the same building.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
‘Prudent, not opulent’ sets the tone for this Catholic hospital
This Building Team stuck with a project for seven years to get a new hospital built for a faithful client.
Building Team Awards | Apr 9, 2015
9/11 museum triumphs over controversy
The Building Team for this highly visible project had much more than design, engineering, and construction problems to deal with.
Building Team Awards | Apr 7, 2015
Unique test facility will help make wind power more feasible
A new facility at Clemson University makes it possible to test the huge stresses that large-scale wind turbines must be able to withstand.
Cultural Facilities | Apr 7, 2015
Mies’ Martin Luther King Jr. Library to get makeover
The architects say the modernization aims to improve “Mies in a contemporary Miesian way.”
Cultural Facilities | Apr 6, 2015
Berkeley’s West Branch Library generates more energy than it uses
The 9,400-sf facility is California's first Net Zero Energy-certified building.