Project Description
The University of Minnesota’s expanded Recreation and Wellness Center provides spaces for students and staff to recreate, exercise, and socialize, while enjoying sweeping views of the school’s urban campus. The recently opened building features Wausau Window and Wall Systems’ factory-assembled curtainwall, windows and sun shades.
The $59.7 million, 150,000-square foot addition doubled the size of the existing facility. Created by Studio Five Architects of Minneapolis, in collaboration with the Chicago office of Cannon Design, the building’s wedge-shape design makes the most of the space’s compact triangular site. The design also includes a façade of brick, limestone and generous amounts of glass to provide natural light to the building users and continuity to the larger University of Minnesota campus.
To accomplish the design and daylighting goals, Minneapolis-based general contractor JE Dunn Construction worked closely with glazing contractor W. L. Hall Company of Hopkins, Minnesota. The building’s multi-radius curved front capitalizes on Wausau’s high-performance curtainwall and windows, allowing natural light to deeply penetrate into all five stories of the building’s interior spaces. The Recreation Center’s entry level also features a gradual stepping-up of the floor to allow daylight to reach as far as possible into the lower levels.