BUFFALO, N.Y.—February 17, 2011—Cannon Design has announced that construction of its second project at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), the new Sports and Recreation Center, is officially underway. The 145,000 sq. ft. facility, programmed, planned and designed by Cannon Design’s Boston office, is scheduled for completion in 2012 at an estimated total cost of $53.2 million.
The new Sports and Recreation Center will transform the WPI campus and enhance the students’ personal and academic growth in a variety of ways. It will not only be a place that the WPI community can go for physical rejuvenation but it will also provide much needed robotics space to support this growing and highly competitive one of a kind program. The two-story building, as viewed from the main campus, expands downhill towards Park Avenue into an expansive 4 story building as it opens onto the athletic fields below. This intriguing building will be the third LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building at WPI and the second of its kind to be planned and implemented by Cannon Design. The other WPI facility designed by Cannon Design is East Hall, a LEED GOLD residential building unveiled in August 2008, which serves as a model for all future sustainable residence halls on campus.
“The new WPI project is an example of what we at Cannon Design pride ourselves on - creating transformative buildings and spaces to enhance student success in and out of the classroom,” said Colleen McKenna, Associate AIA, LEED®, AP, Associate Principal. “We are working closely and collaboratively with WPI to develop sustainable designs that will positively impact the campus and provide the new space necessary for the school’s activities to thrive.”
In addition to providing the WPI community with a state-of the-art fitness facility, complete with a four-court gymnasium, competitive swimming and diving pool, three-lane elevated jogging track, racquetball and squash courts, 8-person rowing tank and aerobic studios, the facility also provides space for academic ventures.
The second of two projects by Cannon Design to serve as models for future sustainable structures on campus, the new Sports and Recreation Facility will utilize solar thermal panels for pool-water heating in order to cut operational costs by up to $50,000, significantly lowering WPI’s carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 4,400 pounds annually.
Underground storage tanks, capable of storing 50,000 gallons of rainwater from the roof, will be used for the building’s cooling system and cut the facility’s water consumption by more than 800,000 gallons per year. Lastly, the team will strive to divert more than 75 percent of construction waste from landfills.
