The 536-foot leisure pool is just one of the key highlights of a larger renovation of the University Recreation (UREC) facilities, including the Student Recreation Center that opened in 1992, according to the university website. The $84.75 million renovation project began in 2013 and has been completed in three phases, with a grand-opening celebration scheduled for Sept. 8 to announce the entire project completion. Locally based GraceHebert Architects and Kansas City, Mo.-based 360 Architecture (acquired by HOK in 2015) were tasked with designing the project.

Phase I included an expansion of the current field complex, including moving and replacing four lighted softball fields and four lighted multipurpose fields as well as creating a new Challenge Course across from the Student Recreation Center. Then, Phase II included the addition of nine new tennis courts and an additional 344 parking spaces at the rec center, both of which debuted in fall 2014.

In addition to the lazy river pool, this latest Phase III part of the project includes an update to the indoor swimming pool, a redesign of the rec center’s locker rooms and moving administration offices to the front of the facility to better serve students. A 13,000-square-foot expansion of the cardio and weight space to 40,431 square feet also enhances the space for students as well as the addition of an indoor jogging trail, turfed CrossFit training slope, 35-foot climbing wall, three more multipurpose courts and a Fitness Assessment Center.

In March, UREC reactivated its main entrance, which attracted a massive amount of students to come explore the facilities. Laurie Braden, executive director of UREC, reported an 89 percent increase in student use in the month of March. A majority of those students were individuals who had never used the facilities in the past.

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Designed by HOK, headquartered in St. Louis, in partnership with Baltimore-based Design Collective Inc., a groundbreaking ceremony took place Sept. 17 to celebrate the building that will cultivate the advancement of the School of Medicine.
Construction on the facility is led by Barton Malow Company, headquartered in Southfield, Mich., which is serving as construction manager on the project.

Several state and local officials attended the ceremony as the building is expected to have significant impacts on the state’s economy and to the subject of biomedical research as a whole.

“With this groundbreaking, we are ushering in a revolution in biomedicine here at the School of Medicine, where fundamental research and advancement in technology converge to create new pathways and new opportunities for science and technology to dramatically impact the health and well-being of the citizens of Maryland, and the region, while positively impacting the economy of our state,” said E. Albert Reece, vice president of medical affairs at the University of Maryland, at the groundbreaking ceremony.

The new facility is one of the largest undertakings of the university both in terms of size and cost. HOK’s design of the new facility features elements that will help the building integrate into the current architectural climate of the campus as well as new design elements that will help the building stand out as a premiere biomedical research facility to attract researchers throughout the world.

“Although we’re trying to be a little bit more contemporary and a little bit more toward the recruitment and retention side, we are still trying to work with the existing urban fabric and campus fabric to integrate that into our facility,” said Tim O’Connell, project manager with HOK.

The new interdisciplinary building, which will be located between the School of Pharmacy and the School of Dentistry, has strong vertical elements that are transparent much like its neighboring facilities. The School of Dentistry and the School of Design will also utilize the facility and the three buildings will share a common outdoor living room.

The exterior design uses a great deal of glass in order to provide natural daylight to all areas of the building.

“We really concentrated on getting natural light into all of the spaces, not just necessarily the lab spaces and the offices spaces, but even a number of the support lab spaces,” O’Connell said. “The reason why is because we found researchers working in lab support spaces for six or eight hours a day.”

The new facility will include research laboratories, vivarium space, BSL-3 laboratories, nano medicine suite, high end imaging suite and replacement space, which will be utilized as renovations take place on other campus research buildings.

The building is also unique, O’Connell said, because it includes both wet research and dry research space in the same facility. The ability to allow each is in keeping with the continued growth of both research areas.

“A lot of people assumed that as bioinformatics and dry research started to grow, all these other facilities would decrease in size,” O’Connell said. “We’ve actually seen the exact opposite. As the dry research grows exponentially, all other components seem to grow as well – not quite as fast – but they have definitely continued to grow.”

The HSF III is set for completion in January 2018.

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