The San Antonio Spurs kicked off the current NBA season with a new practice facility that aims not only to help players win championships but also to promote their physical and mental well-being.
Designed by ZGF, the Victory Capital Performance Center uses biophilic design to promote better health and wellness on and off the court for players who spend much of their time indoors. The facility provides training, meeting, dining, and event spaces, while also offering outdoor experiences, indoor/outdoor spaces, and ample natural lighting.
The new 138,900-sf center includes practice courts; locker rooms; athletic training and performance areas; strength and conditioning spaces; recovery spaces, including hydrotherapy pools, sauna, steam room, and float tanks; kitchen and dining spaces; meeting and event spaces; outdoor training area; secure parking; workspace with offices and conference rooms for coaches, administration, and training staff; and a potential broadcast center.
The center also is billed as the largest mass timber constructed training center in professional sports. The design features cross-laminated timber, glulam beams, and concrete masonry units.
With masonry, glass, and wood, the design drew inspiration from the vernacular and landscape of the San Antonio region, particularly its Mission-style architecture, subtropical landscape, and San Antonio River Walk. Local limestone, knotty oak, and leathers nod to the local architecture.
While the front of the facility houses the practice courts and training spaces, the back includes smaller-scale spaces for privacy, gathering, and recovery. A public façade features board-formed concrete and glass fiber reinforced concrete piers that form a colonnade to display champion banners and guide visitors to the glass-box entry lobby.
Further into the space, the design becomes more intimate and residential in scale, providing more privacy for players and staff. The building offers a private players’ entrance; landscaped space for outdoor training; and secured parking for players, coaches, and staff. Intimate garden spaces allow the team and staff to gather or spend quiet time on work or recovery.
On the Building Team:
Developers: Spurs Sports & Entertainment and Lincoln Property Company
Design architect and architect of record: ZGF
Local architect: RVK Architecture
MEP and structural engineer: ARUP USA, Inc.
Civil engineer: Pape-Dawson Engineers
Landscape architect: Rialto Studio
General contractor: Joeris General Contractors
Related Stories
| Nov 16, 2010
Brazil Olympics spurring green construction
Brazil's green building industry will expand in the coming years, spurred by construction of low-impact venues being built for the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee requires arenas built for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro meet international standards for low-carbon emissions and energy efficiency. This has boosted local interest in developing real estate with lower environmental impact than existing buildings. The timing couldn’t be better: the Brazilian government is just beginning its long-term infrastructure expansion program.
| Nov 3, 2010
Park’s green education center a lesson in sustainability
The new Cantigny Outdoor Education Center, located within the 500-acre Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Ill., earned LEED Silver. Designed by DLA Architects, the 3,100-sf multipurpose center will serve patrons of the park’s golf courses, museums, and display garden, one of the largest such gardens in the Midwest.
| Nov 3, 2010
Sailing center sets course for energy efficiency, sustainability
The Milwaukee (Wis.) Community Sailing Center’s new facility on Lake Michigan counts a geothermal heating and cooling system among its sustainable features. The facility was designed for the nonprofit instructional sailing organization with energy efficiency and low operating costs in mind.
| Nov 3, 2010
Recreation center targets student health, earns LEED Platinum
Not only is the student recreation center at the University of Arizona, Tucson, the hub of student life but its new 54,000-sf addition is also super-green, having recently attained LEED Platinum certification.
| Oct 13, 2010
New health center to focus on education and awareness
Construction is getting pumped up at the new Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado, Denver. The four-story, 94,000-sf building will focus on healthy lifestyles and disease prevention.
| Oct 13, 2010
Community center under way in NYC seeks LEED Platinum
A curving, 550-foot-long glass arcade dubbed the “Wall of Light” is the standout architectural and sustainable feature of the Battery Park City Community Center, a 60,000-sf complex located in a two-tower residential Lower Manhattan complex. Hanrahan Meyers Architects designed the glass arcade to act as a passive energy system, bringing natural light into all interior spaces.
| Oct 13, 2010
Community college plans new campus building
Construction is moving along on Hudson County Community College’s North Hudson Campus Center in Union City, N.J. The seven-story, 92,000-sf building will be the first higher education facility in the city.
| Oct 12, 2010
Owen Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Officials at Michigan State University’s East Lansing Campus were concerned that Owen Hall, a mid-20th-century residence facility, was no longer attracting much interest from its target audience, graduate and international students.
| Oct 12, 2010
Building 13 Naval Station, Great Lakes, Ill.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Gold Award. Designed by Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt and constructed in 1903, Building 13 is one of 39 structures within the Great Lakes Historic District at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill.
| Sep 16, 2010
Green recreation/wellness center targets physical, environmental health
The 151,000-sf recreation and wellness center at California State University’s Sacramento campus, called the WELL (for “wellness, education, leisure, lifestyle”), has a fitness center, café, indoor track, gymnasium, racquetball courts, educational and counseling space, the largest rock climbing wall in the CSU system.