Located on the corner of West 218th street and Broadway – the northernmost edge of Manhattan, where Broadway crosses with Tenth Avenue and the elevated tracks of the 1 subway line – the Campbell Sports Center forms a new gateway to the Baker Athletics Complex, the primary athletics facility for Columbia University’s outdoor sports program.
The first new athletics building to be constructed on Columbia University’s campus since the Marcellus Hartley Dodge Physical Fitness Center was built in the mid-1970s, the Campbell Sports Center is the new cornerstone of the revitalized Baker Athletics Complex and provides increased program space for the entire intercollegiate athletics program.
The facility, which adds approximately 48,000 square foot of space, houses strength and conditioning spaces, offices for varsity sports, theater-style meeting rooms, a hospitality suite and student-athlete study rooms. The Campbell Sports Center aims at serving the mind, the body and the mind/body for aspiring scholar-athletes.
The design concept “points on the ground, lines in space” – like field play diagrams used for football, soccer, and baseball – develops from point foundations on the sloping site. Just as points and lines in diagrams yield the physical push and pull on the field, the building’s elevations push and pull in space.
The building shapes an urban corner on Broadway and 218th street, then lifts up to form a portal, connecting the playing field with the streetscape. Extending over a stepped landscape, blue soffits heighten the openness of the urban scale portico to the Baker Athletics Complex.
Terraces and external stairs, which serve as “lines in space,” draw the field play onto and into the building and give views from the upper levels over the Baker Athletics Complex and Manhattan with the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings in the distance.
The design concept, led by Steven Holl and senior partner Chris McVoy, “points on the ground, lines in space”—like field play diagrams used for football, soccer, baseball—develops from point foundations on the sloping site.
Steven Holl states, “We are honored to collaborate with Dianne Murphy and Columbia Facilities in creating this new state of the art athletics facility. Its inviting architecture indicates the invigorating presence and future of intercollegiate Athletics at Columbia University.”
Location: New York City, USA
Architect: Steven HollArchitects
Partner in Charge: Chris McVoy
Associate in Charge: Olaf Schmidt
Project Team: Marcus Carter, Christiane Deptolla, Peter Englaender, Runar Halldorsson, Jackie Luk, Filipe Taboada, Dimitra Tsachrelia, Ebbie Wisecarver
Construction Manager: Structuretone / Pavarini McGovern
Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Associates
MEP Engineer: ICOR Associates
Civil Engineer: Hirani Engineering
Sustainability Engineer: Transsolar
Curtain Wall Consultant: W.J. Higgins
Lighting Consultant: Wald Studio
Audio/Visual Consultant: The Clarient Group
Acoustical Consultant: Cerami Associates
Facade Fabrication: Architectural Wall Systems
Building Area (square): 48000 sf
Year: 2013
Client: Columbia University