Making a
Congratulations Washington University on the Sumers Recreation Center
Modern
Recreation Center from
Historic
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Buildings
Tight constructions sites—and tight construction schedules—are nothing unusual these days, especially when the project is an addition to an existing building. But the team working on the Gary M. Sumers Recreation Center at Washington University faced all that—and an additional challenge not often encountered. They had to preserve three walls and the iconic towers of one of the original buildings on campus—Francis Gymnasium, named for David R. Francis, 1870 Washington University graduate, St. Louis mayor, Missouri governor, 20th United States secretary of the interior, president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, and U.S. ambassador to Russia during the 1917 revolution. The historic walls and towers date to 1904 when St. Louis hosted the World’s Fair and the first modern Olympics at Washington University. The adjacent fieldhouse has touched history as site of many U. S. presidential debates. In fact, the Sumers Recreation Center could get its inaugural use on October 9 if the Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump debate goes off as scheduled. The Sumers Recreation Centere would serve as the press headquarters while the debate is in the fieldhouse. Both the gym and adjacent Francis Field are registered historic landmarks. A path will once again link the gym with Graham Chapel, as originally envisioned by architects Cope and Stewardson who designed 11 of the campus’ original collegiate gothic buildings. The Sumers Center is actually “an addition plus a totally new building behind an old facade,” said Chris Chivetta, president of Hastings+Chivetta Architects, which with Pennsylvania-based Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ) were the architects. The facilities include a suspended jogging track with sweeping views of Francis Field; state-ofthe-art fitness equipment, three-court gymnasium, multipurpose rooms, spinning studio, sports medicine suite, hydrotherapy pools, team meeting rooms, and offices.
Laboratory Sciences Building, 2002
Psychology Building, 1996
Village East Apartments, 2008
‘Hollowing Out the Pumpkin’ It’s hard to imagine how to demolish a building’s interior leaving three walls intact, but John Miller, managing principal of the St. Louis office of KPFF and structural engineer of record on the building, makes it sound easy: “We carved out that building like a pumpkin—literally,” he said. “We took out the floors, we took out the roof and we saved three of the four walls and inside that hollowed building we inserted a new structure, new floor, new roof and put a big addition on the back of it.
www.bsistl.com
The Voice for the St. Louis Construction Industry September-October ‘16
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