Last night over 50 students and several administrators gathered in Tindle Lounge to participate in a fact finding workshop on the future of athletic and recreational space at Dartmouth College.
"We have completely open minds and need to hear ...directly from the students," said Chad Floyd, a Partner at Centerbrook Architects and Planners, the college architectural firm and the leader of the workshop last night.
The college architects head a team of specialists that includes engineers and representatives from Brailsford & Dunlavey, which specializes in state of the art developments in the college athletic arena.
The workshop began with a presentation by two employees of Brailsford & Dunlavey, who discussed the history of athletic facilities and offered ideas for the future. There were four major historical periods in college athletics: post World War I (the 1920s), post World War II (the 1950s), the "Physical Education" period (the 1970s) and the "Contemporary Era" (1985 -present).
The presenters detailed major characteristics of the past eras such as defining the architectural composition of the structure as it related to the greater campus, the building's interior and the facilities location, as well as the group of people comprising the gym users.
"The College wants to make sure there is an opportunity outside of the classroom ...to enjoy the community," Floyd said.
The athletic facility will be important in light of the current movements in college athletics that Brailsford & Dunlavey detailed.
Future trends will include a facility with combined recreational and athletic space that results in an additional campus social space. The firm provided the example of the gym at the University of Miami, where students gather during the day and at night to socialize in a central courtyard or to drink at the juice bar.
More students are using college athletic facilities. This trend began in the 1970s when an awareness of physical fitness developed and sports medicine became popular. It also results from the implementation of Title IX which forbids federally funded institutions from discriminating against students.
Combined with the current self-motivated drive for personal well-being, the number of members of the college community who use the facilities have grown. There is not only a focus upon varsity team facilities but also an increased demand for new and improved amenities for the entire college community, including the staff.
Instead of having separate areas for the various athletic opportunities, there will be more of a trend to integrate all of the opportunities into a central space. For example, at the University of Maryland there are exercise machines and weights clusters throughout the facility.
Because colleges are increasingly trying to differentiate themselves from other schools to attract the highest caliber students, the facilities the college builds are important. However, because the buildings become outdated so quickly, there is a current drive to assimilate future developments into the character of the overall campus and make them unique to the specific college.
After the presentation, Floyd unrolled the current athletic layout at Dartmouth and invited attendees to write comments on the plan. This was the first of four workshops that will discuss the future of athletics at Dartmouth. Other workshops will take place this summer and next fall. Additionally, there will be interviews and focus groups in the future to address the ideas students suggested last night
