Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

San Bernardino Valley College: Kinesiology and Athletics Complex

  • 05/01/18
San Bernardino Valley College

PHOTOS © RMA PHOTOGRAPHY

San Bernardino Valley College (SBVC) in San Bernardino, CA, has grown steadily since its establishment in 1926. When the substantial 1992 Landers and Big Bear earthquakes struck the area, however, a new sense of urgency accompanied the need to better organize and integrate facilities across the campus.

When asked to design the new Kinesiology and Athletics Complex at SBVC, HMC Architects was faced with a specific geographic challenge: The San Jacinto fault zone, which runs through the San Bernardino community, diagonally bisecting the campus. HMC’s designers had to plan around the fault zone while integrating and organizing facilities across the campus to support the safety of the rapidly growing community. With the new facility’s location at the center of campus, it was important for all site utilities—including the physical education complex and grandstands—to remain functional and uninterrupted during construction. The affected buildings were then demolished and replaced, eliminating the need to build a temporary gym and producing a seamless, less disruptive, and cost-effective solution.

The result is a three-story, 108,509-square-foot facility that features two NCAA competition gymnasium spaces, athletics and PE locker rooms, exercise and dance facilities, office space, and specialized instruction spaces. The complex leads into the updated athletics quad and a new 2,500-seat stadium with concessions, ticketing, toilet rooms, team rooms, meeting rooms, and athletic storage.

Qualities from previous buildings are combined with the new building, creating a cohesive feel across the campus. The landscaping includes a new oak woodland consisting of drought-tolerant plants and walkways, which tie the complex into the overall site.

Standing bold and proud, the facility is a campus focal point—a testament to world-class care for the college’s athletes.

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management May 2018 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Opportunity by Design Framework

    Opportunity by Design

    Educational improvement efforts often focus on curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, and intervention systems while treating the physical school building as background. But school design is not a passive backdrop to learning — it is a structural lever for equity.

  • University of Mary Washington Selects Builder for New Theater, Dance Facility

    The University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., recently announced that it has selected construction and development firm Skanska to lead a series of renovations and upgrades to fine arts facilities, according to a news release.

  • Texas A&M Opens First Building at Fort Worth Campus, Breaks Ground on Research Facility

    The Texas A&M University System marked a major milestone in the development of its Fort Worth campus by opening its first completed academic building and breaking ground on a second facility designed to expand research and industry collaboration.

  • Esports are Growing in Popularity

    Video games and esports are a popular social hobby, and it’s one that’s accessible to a wide variety of physical ability levels. Some esport student-athletes have started to earn scholarship opportunities, and high schools are beginning to form teams equipped with the same degree of resources as their physical sports teams. However, the two have very different needs.