STORRS, Conn.—The Student Recreation Center, located at the heart of the University of Connecticut’s (UCONN) Storrs campus, has been recognized by the National Intramural and Recreational Sports Association as an Outstanding Facility of Merit as part of its 2021 NIRSA Awards.

The 191,000-square-foot recreation center was designed jointly by JCJ Architecture and Moody Nolan to replace an older athletic facility that offered only 25,000 square feet of space. Turner Construction, whose home base is in New York, served on the project as the general contractor.

Among the rec center’s amenities are a 20,000-square-foot fitness center, basketball and volleyball courts, running track, climbing wall, outdoor fitness spaces, as well as space that can be utilized for larger events.

One of the key features of the new recreation center, and which likely caught the attention of the NIRSA selection committee, was that UCONN wanted the new facility to be a place of inclusion, with programs focusing on personal growth and wellness for a diverse segment of students and the surrounding community.

“This project gave us the opportunity to work closely with the students, faculty and staff at UCONN and to create an exciting facility that meets the needs of this dynamic institution,” James E. LaPosta Jr., who serves as chief architectural officer at JCJ, said in a recent statement when the award was announced. “We are thrilled to have the team’s work recognized by NIRSA because of their focus on promoting the very best in design and innovative programs for collegiate recreation.”

Each year, the NIRSA Outstanding Facilities Awards recognize innovative work in collegiate recreational facilities in several categories, including renovations, ground-up and expansions. The judges examine nominees along such criteria as functionality, design and how closely the project hews to the original intentions for the recreational building. The selection process also looks for structures that will inspire other designers in the future.

In a statement to School Construction News, Cynthia Costanzo, executive director of UCONN Recreation, said the school was honored to have the Student Recreation Facility named as a 2021 NISRA Facility of Merit.

“This recognition establishes our facility amongst the best-of-the-best as we continue to strive to be leaders in collegiate recreation, helping our community to lead healthier lives,” she said.

“This past year has clearly reminded us of the importance of health and human connection,” JCJ’s LaPosta commented to School Construction News. “The Student Rec Center is a tangible representation of the University’s commitment to fostering wellness and personal growth. The NIRSA Facility of Merit designation is a testament to how the design team and the UCONN community came together to make the new Student Rec Center a reality.”

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STORRS, Conn. – Governor Dannel P. Malloy, UConn President Susan Herbst, students and researchers gathered recently to celebrate the opening of UConn’s new, state-of-the-art, five-story Science and Engineering building.

Designed by New York City-based Mitchell Giurgola Architects, the $95 million building is a part of UConn’s efforts to expand STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) academia.

The design team worked together to build flexible, highly efficient, generically planned, open labs tailored to multiple science and engineering disciplines.

The facility offers roughly 118,000 square feet of laboratories, with open lab spaces at the perimeter with interior support space, offices and public spaces at the ends of the building, and expression of these elements on the façade with glass curtainwall as well as expression of “servant” spaces such as stairs and penthouses with tile panels.

The School of Engineering designated three floors for housing programs such as robotics, advanced manufacturing that includes, various rugged industrial keyboards in an integrated computing system, cyber physics, virtual and augmented reality, mechatronics, and other fields. The Institute for Systems Genomics consists of two floors, including its Center for Genome Innovation, microbial analysis and resource service, and other programs.

While working on a very constrained site, as well as fielding concerns from some of the faculty regarding the open plan labs, the team was able to proceed and overcome these challenges with careful planning and discussion.

According to Mitchell Giurgola Partner James R. Braddock, AIA, UConn’s new science facility is, to the best of his knowledge, the first example of an open plan engineering lab.

“We have done numerous open plan science labs, but this is our first open plan engineering research lab, where numerous groups do individual projects such as using grinding machines, in a common space,” said Braddock. “We believe this fosters interaction and collaboration among groups and will have a positive effect on research outcomes. It also facilitates changes in space need among groups as research projects begin and end, optimizing space utilization.”

According to Braddock, actual researchers were not chosen until late in the process, but ”proxy” committees were constituted for each of the program groups, and numerous meetings were held with each committee to gain input on the design as it progressed.

Gov. Malloy stated on Twitter that this new building will help drive new innovations in a range of scientific disciplines, expressing the pride of another milestone in the Next Generation Connecticut Initiative, aiding the state’s goal of expanding STEM to promote economic growth.

“This building is the culmination of significant investment by the state of Connecticut in the field of STEM, and in the future of engineering,” Kazem Kazerounian, dean of the School of Engineering said in a statement posted to the school’s website. “Nearly 40 percent of our state’s economy is generated by engineering-related industries, and with our 70 percent increase in engineering enrollment, and significant investment in resources, UConn is providing research, talent, and technology that will pay dividends for decades to come.”

The new UConn building was designed to achieve LEED Silver Certification and to fulfill Connecticut High-Performance Building Standards. It was built by Fusco Corp. of New Haven, Conn., with construction beginning in 2015 and finishing this spring.

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