INSTITUTIONAL Projects

The Field Sports Training Facility is a highly visible, two story, structure which was developed for Stetson University as a “design build” collaborative. The overall cost of this development was $5.6 million with $3.8 of that amount devoted to the building. The total scope of the project also includes three practice fields for football, lacrosse and soccer as well as a game day field for lacrosse and soccer. All of the fields are complete with sports lighting and the “game day” competition field also has a scoreboard and bleachers.  In addition, an old tennis court facility has been enlarged and converted to parking. The entire two block complex is surrounded by a plush landscape buffer which is intended to accentuate the project.

The exterior of the building has been designed to accommodate grandstands along its east side in the future. The fundamental design premise of the building was to follow Louis Sullivan’s mantra of “Form Follows Function”. It was critically important to design a building that worked and then to incorporate other design concepts. Around its perimeter the building has been designed to establish a link between the older buildings on the campus by incorporating some of the design elements of these structures into the new building.  It was also important to relate to the adjacent residential neighborhood.  A concerted effort was made to reflect the backdrop of the neighborhood in the architecture while embracing functional objectives.

The building houses operations for football, men’s and women’s soccer and women’s lacrosse. This includes a 100 player locker room for football as well as 30+ player locker rooms for each soccer and lacrosse team. There is complete isolation between men’s and women’s locker and shower facilities to ensure privacy. The facility also houses office suites for each team and provides a series of smaller team meeting rooms as well as a 100+ person large meeting room which can be sub-divided into three spaces.  All of the meeting rooms are equipped with “state of the art” video display capability. Other featureswithin the structure include a laundry facility, dual use VIP/study hall suite and restrooms to accommodate “game day” visitors.  In addition, the building contains a sports medicine suite and a 3,500 square foot weight room which is to be used by all Stetson athletes. The hallmark of this “design build” effort was that we were able to deliver a 24,500 square foot building for the same cost as was budgeted for a programmed 16,000 square foot structure.