Establishing a Campus Neighborhood of Health and Wellness
Walter Price Student Fitness Center
Everett Community College
The new Student Fitness Center welcomes the Everett community to campus and invites all to enjoy and participate in the colorful cacophony of sports activities within. Anchoring Everett Community College’s eastward expansion, the building symbolizes a dynamic environment that has long been hidden from its neighbors.
Size
49,700 sf
Location
Everett, WA
Year Complete
2011
2011 Citation Award — IIDA Portland Design Awards
2011 Citation Award — AIA Portland Architecture Awards
After 28 years of teaching in the old gym, the transition to the new on‑campus Student Fitness Center has been incredible. It’s light, bright and airy with great spaces for working out, enjoying recreational activities, studying and hanging out. In the past, few students or staff ventured to the gym to work out, hang out or enjoy study time. Now there are people in the building from the time it opens to the time it closes. The building has added a new feeling to the campus—people choose to spend additional time on campus because of the marvelous facility we have.
Sue Grigsby, Physical Education, Health and Wellness
Connecting to the Community
Located near the south edge of the existing campus, the building houses a gymnasium, weight and fitness exercise rooms, climbing wall, juice bar and multi-purpose spaces. Entry spaces are linked to an interior commons area that provides views into the gym and activity rooms and conveys a lively sense of kinetic energy.
This development has a direct impact on its local neighborhood. The entrance court’s activities are visible from the busy thoroughfare nearby and anticipate the rest of the campus to the west. The juice bar, clearly visible within, connects to the outdoors with a series of sliding doors and establishes a sorely needed student hang-out. In turn, the dramatic form of the nearby climbing wall captures the attention of occupants and passersby.
Openness and Connection
The design emphasizes openness and connections that let the sights and sounds of various activities fill the building. Natural light and natural ventilation, the result of large expanses of efficient, operable windows, skylights and double-height spaces, accentuate a feeling of participation in the great outdoors.
A Bridge to Future Development
The design fulfills the site’s potential as an extension of the upper campus and as a bridge for future development to the south and east, as well as to parking to the north. The plan responds with three entries, each with a distinctive and welcoming outdoor plaza with views of the double-height circulation areas within.
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