St. Edward's Rec, Athletic Center Near Completion In South Austin

SOUTH AUSTIN, TX — The St. Edward’s University Recreation and Athletic Center is nearing completion, officials said Monday.

The original athletic center at St. Edward’s University, built in the mid 1980’s, was a very typical facility for its time, officials said in a press advisory. It featured a basketball arena, squash courts, and athletics offices but nothing in the way of facilities for personal fitness or wellness, according to the university. The building also was surrounded by parking lots and disconnected from the heart of student life.

With the aid of Specht Architects, the university is changing that with a new 12,400-square-foot addition that not only accommodates newer ideas of fitness and recreation, but knits the facility into the campus as a whole, officials said.

Wrapping the campus-facing side of the facility, the addition houses a new fitness center, a studio for yoga and other activities, and a wellness /meditation center. The spaces are for use by the entire student body and faculty rather than athletes only, officials noted.

A portion of the building also extends out toward the heart of campus, and incorporates outdoor “stadium type” seating facing a new plaza where performance and presentations will take place, according to a university description. What's more, the plaza creates a new pedestrian-oriented active space where the parking lot once existed.

The studio/yoga space is the focal point of the new facility, officials said, as well as a campus landmark. It's designed as a “glass cube” that floats above the entry plaza, allowing activities to be visible to those below. It's also located at one end of the main campus green, officials added, providing an inviting presence at a corner of the campus that was previously dark and under-occupied.

“The new Recreation and Athletic Center will be a building that defines the St. Edward’s University campus, and engages the student body, embodying the idea of fitness and wellness as a major element of a well-rounded education,” Scott Specht, founder Specht Architects, said in a prepared statement.

Specht Architects also designed Doyle Hall for St. Edward’s University- which garnered an AIA Design Award, university officials noted. The general contractor for the project is Hill & Wilkinson Construction.