Project Description
From AIA Chicago:
Located in an existing storefront space in a vintage Bucktown building, this is our San Francisco based client’s Chicago flagship workout studio. The program included a main workout room to be enclosed and kept at a very warm 98.6 degrees (same temperature as the human body), changing rooms, reception desk, shoe storage, open lockers, and benches where patrons can remove their shoes before entering the workout room. By clearly defining its mass and volume, we celebrate the main workout room, affectionately known as the "hot box" and define it as a distinct and featured element. As seen from the street, this red panel clad workout room visually reads as a box within a box and becomes the calling card feature of the workout studio. Selectively carved openings in the walls of the box create views in and out, and to allow the interior architecture to dramatically reveal itself as one follows the path of circulation.