Daylighting: Kalwall® Gives Northwest Rec Center a Light Workout
The Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District might have been content with just another field house. But BOORA Architects, Inc., of Portland, Oregon, envisioned a space that would reflect the thrill and energy of sports.
Tucked into a residential area in Beaverton, Oregon, west of Portland, the district already enjoyed a campus of playing fields as well as indoor tennis and swimming facilities perched on a wooded rise of nine acres. Developed in 1979, its popularity spawned an expansion ten times the area of the original site, the centerpiece of which is the Athletic Center.
"We wanted to energize the traditional field house style of athletic building design," says BOORA's Dennis O'Toole. "We deliberately exposed construction and mechanical systems. There's a strong expression of the physical exertion of sport itself." The over 60,000-square-foot, $5.4 million Athletic Center, surrounded by terraced soccer fields and bleacher seating, softball diamonds, and sunken basketball courts, cuts into nearby farmland. "For that reason," O'Toole continues, "the standing seam metal walls and roof are sculpted to be an extension of the land and even to suggest the industrial farm structures found in the region."
To that end, the Center was conceived as an earthwork meant to blend smoothly into the landscape rather than disrupt it. The building construction is primarily cast-in-place concrete with a roof and supporting structure framed in steel. The earthworks are retained by concrete walls and 12-foot by 18-inch monolithic piers supported by paired steel trusses, modulating the interior space and exterior fenestration. The building skin is sheathed in standing seam metal. Translucent insulated panels are utilized for skylights and clerestories. Clear glass aluminum windows allow views from the north running track, lobby, administrative offices and meeting rooms.
Edged by berms of soil leftover from laying out the soccer fields, the Center stretches across a meadow 20 feet in elevation below the original complex and folds gently into the sloping topography, stopping well short of a contiguous forest preserve. Inside, aesthetics and practicality combine to provide administration, meeting and lobby space, daycare, equipment storage and checkout, as well as lockers. The 100-foot by 360-foot "Great Hall" is a flexible, multi-use room for basketball, volleyball and badminton courts.
Kalwall Makes the "Great Hall" Glow
With earth berms wrapping the "Great Hall", BOORA made sure plenty of natural daylight could get inside. "Between the various courts, we have 12-foot by 18-inch concrete piers supporting paired trusses," explains O'Toole. "That creates a rhythm of zones and bays for Kalwall® translucent skylights." On three sides of the building, the panels are fitted into clerestories, bringing controlled, natural daylight to the elevated running track and into the structure beyond. "And when you see it at night from the outside," adds O'Toole, "indoor lighting creates a warm, inviting glow."
Kalwall was perfect for the Tualatin project in every way. According to O'Toole, "the energy performance, structural integrity and aesthetic effect of the Kalwall skylights, clerestories and walls were integral to the success of this design."
Kalwall Specifications:
Light Transmission: 20%
Solar Heat Gain Coefficient: 0.19 wall, 0.23 roof
U-Factor: .23 TB by NFRC
Panel Color: .070 Crystal SW exterior, .045 White S170 interior
Trim Color: White #00Architect: BOORA Architects, Inc., Portland, OR
Photography: John Hughel, Jr.
For more information, contact:
Bruce Keller
Kalwall Corporation
1-800-258-9777
