Stark Performance Center Iowa by substance architecture for Iowa State University is a 110,000-square-foot academic and training resource with a design focused on catering to a range of student-athletes needs.
The facility includes spaces dedicated to improved performance – both on the field and in the classroom – by consolidating locker rooms, strength training, athletic training, academic and life-skills support, and sports nutrition in a single state-of-the-art facility serving the university’s Football, Soccer, Softball, Golf, and Tennis teams.
The building expands the existing Bergstrom Football Training Facility–a 140,000-square-foot complex constructed over the preceding two decades– to create a single, 250,000-square-foot training center.
Stark Performance Center Iowa has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Awards Honorable Mention by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
In addition, the project improves the game-day experience for fans in and around the stadium by creating a public plaza and integrating other site amenities, as well as an interactive public artwork.
The building was conceived as a simple, precast “box” connected to the existing building.
This “box” maximizes the 20,000 square feet available and contains the programmatic elements associated with the Football, Soccer, Softball, Golf, and Tennis teams organized on three levels–two above-grade and one below.
Supported above this “box” is an Academic and Dining “bar”.
This “bar” is cantilevered to the north, south, and east by way of a two-story truss, and is expressed as a simple, curtainwall form–glazed to the north, south, and east, and wrapped with metal panels to the west.
The “bar” is supported by columns that straddle the “box” below.
Internally, the floors are organized with public spaces in the eastern, glazed portion of the “bar” with service spaces sequestered in its metal-clad portion.
These two, elemental forms–the “box” and the “bar”–work in tandem.
They are unified by a set of interconnecting lobbies and stairs.
The building works with existing buildings to create an athletic campus – part of an ambitious Master Plan to consolidate the University’s athletic facilities in one location.
This Master Plan required a design that was prospective–developed to complement and support buildings that will be constructed over the next two decades–while appearing complete without them.
Project: Stark Performance Center Iowa
Architects: substance architecture
General Contractor: Neumann Brothers, Inc.
Client: Iowa State University
Photographers: Corey Gaffer
