Bend Simpson Pavilion

Project Details

Project Description

The all-season sports pavilion located in the high desert of Bend, OR is a unique international model for the expression of how elementally elegant a building’s fundamentals can be. The 30,000sf wood-clad roof is held aloft by slender steel columns wrapped with perimeter translucent polymer screen walls that emphasize the canopy floating over the Central Oregon Landscape. The design aimed to wed the purest functions of shelter with a welcoming, enchanting architectural drama. The sports complex features an open-air regulation NHL ice rink that in warmer months serves soccer, skateboarding, and other sports, plus a 10,000 sf support building for equipment rentals, locker rooms, concessions, and multi-purpose room. The support building and shelter exteriors are enclosed in a rainscreen system with painted cement-panels and durable steel plate finish at the vulnerable lower surfaces. Nestled into the sloping topography with an adjacent terraced courtyard, The Pavilion complex offers a park-like setting with a covered gathering shelter, sculptural seating, and fire pits. To achieve the client’s directive for a bold civic gesture, the roof was transformed into a single sharply contoured plane rising from the gently sloping site. The structural steel trusses are enclosed with a cement-panel fascia and a soffit of plywood smoothly crafted in 5,000 individually installed slats with acoustical absorption above. The use of wood provides visual warmth and references Bend’s natural environment and history as a mill town. The fritted perimeter wrap — made from highly durable ETFE or ethylene tetrafluoroethylene — screens the desert’s punishing prevailing winter winds and summer sun. Winter evenings bring the facility to particularly glowing life.