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Coalescence
The 250,000 sqft War Memorial Hall is located in the middle of Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, VA. It was originally built in the 1920s with a major renovation in the 1970s. It houses the Virginia Tech Recreational Sports gym facilities and is used by the School of Education and the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise. The building features an indoor pool, basketball courts, exercise rooms, classrooms, and offices.
Walk Through War Memorial Hall
The Wellness Hub
In order to achieve and surpass the expectations of designing a wellness space that promotes health and relaxation, Coalescence has designed a premier space which links the 1920’s and 1970’s through a large atrium. The atrium features a grand staircase that links the varying slab levels due to differing floor-to-floor heights between 1920’s and 1970’s structure. Additionally, the large atrium features an open floor plan on the ground level with accessible courtyards located adjacent to the lobby.
The Fitness Center
The location of the fitness center was chosen based on a variety of factors, with much emphasis placed on the ability to obtain the most efficient daylighting benefits as well as overall constructability . Additionally, this space offered great mechanical and lighting discipline integration to achieve energy efficient lighting placement and design as well as mechanical handling of the air and temperature control.
The Natatorium
The Natatorium space was relocated to the Project northeast corner of War Memorial Hall in a collaborative effort to optimize architectural programming, daylighting, natural ventilation, and constructability.
The Basketball Courts
The basketball courts were an important feature of Coalescence’s overall re-design and offered many discipline integration points for the team to focus on. The long-span trusses were a strong focus for the structural team, as well as the mechanical team benefiting from the ability to run mechanical ducts through the large trusses. Additionally, the structural team designed the indoor track to run through the long span trusses, and the track helped provide daylighting benefits in respects to controlling glare. Each discipline was able to implement a design focus in these basketball courts.
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