For Immediate Release: October 3, 2007
New Facility for University of Minnesota Varsity Women's Rowing Team, Designed by HGA Architects and Engineers, Gives Crew Competitive Edge
Minneapolis, MN - The University of Minnesota Varsity Women's Rowing Team earned its first Big Ten title after moving into a new facility designed by HGA Architects and Engineers, Minneapolis. Formerly housed in a tent adjacent to a University power plant near the I-35W bridge that recently collapsed, the team now occupies a new, 17,500-square-foot boathouse that includes boat storage, locker rooms, and year-around, state-of-the-art, indoor training facilities.
"We have the best ranking we've ever had," says Wendy Davis, Women's Crew Coach and Big Ten Co-Coach of the Year in 2006, "and I know we wouldn't be ranked that highly without the boathouse."
Adds Loren Ahles, FAIA, a principal at HGA and the boathouse's architect, "How would having the boathouse not improve the team's performance? This building provides the women's crew with a humane situation for getting together, practicing and honing their skills-whatever the weather outside."
Previously, the women's varsity team, which was initiated by the University about six years ago, could practice only on the river, from spring to fall: The team didn't have any indoor training facilities. Besides the tent, the team was equipped only with portable restrooms; there were no areas to shower, cool off or warm up after training outdoors on the water.
The new boathouse, in addition to locker rooms with hot showers, has three boat-storage bays, one boat-repair bay, spacious training facilities, laundry rooms and coaches offices. The University's men's crew club also uses the women's boathouse, and has been allocated one of the boat bays.
Because of the boathouse's siting next to the Mississippi River, directly across from the crew racecourse, the team can now also host invitational meets. The boathouse rises above the shoreline (just outside the floodplain) on one-half acre of land in East River Flats Park, on which eight to 10 crews and boat trailers could park and prepare for competitions.
A Collaboration for the Future. Before designing the boathouse, HGA collaborated with several large bureaucratic entities-including the University of Minnesota, City of Minneapolis, Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board (which owns the property), and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (to gain proper access to the waterway)-to secure the site. Before the boathouse's construction, Ahles also made sure the final design met the stakeholders' concerns and criteria.
"A lot of collaboration was required for this project, which took less than a year to construct once we reached a point of consensus," Ahles recalls. "Everyone's primary concerns were what the structure would look
like, how big it would be and how it would affect the site. The Park Board was especially concerned that the boathouse not be a solid, over-imposing, monolithic building."
The boat bays generated the design's "rational, rectangular plan," Ahles says. The storage bays for the 70-foot-long boats are on the ground level, which is sturdily constructed of concrete block. On the upper level, clad in clear-cedar lap siding, the structure houses two spacious training areas: the "erg room," with freestanding rowing machines on which team members practice and engage in endurance training; and the "tank room," where they pull oars against real moving water during inclement weather and the winter months.
"Our challenge was to break down the rectangularity of the plan," Ahles explains, "and to open up, bring down and give texture to its solidity." To reduce the mass of the plan and its large open spaces, Ahles sculpted four of the forms with shed roofs, creating distinctive volumes. He also designed windows of varying sizes and shapes to add visual patterning to the building's exterior, and detailed the fenestration with an infill panelization of cement board.
A large balcony facing the river racecourse cantilevers out from the upper level, adding an element of lightness and suspension to the building's simple, modern facade. A wide, long concrete apron extends from inside the lower level toward the river, so crewmembers can easily maneuver their boats in and out of the bays.
Ahles also placed the windows to maximize views of while crewmembers are training inside. Windows in the exercise or erg room face the Mississippi River. Windows in the tank room provide views to the west, of downtown Minneapolis and its skyline. Locker room windows were placed high up on the wall, and face east into the park.
The stand-alone building sits below the University of Minnesota in a city park next to the Mississippi River and bluffs and is surrounded by open green space and hiking and biking trails. "When you're inside the building, you really feel as if you're in your own world, all by yourself," Ahles says. "The crew team started using the building as soon as they could, early this year. They desperately needed this facility, and couldn't wait to get on the water for the 2007 season."
:: View University of Minnesota Women's Varsity Rowing Facility
HGA Contact: Julie Luers (612) 758-4000 e-mail JLuers@hga.com
Media Contact: Susan Evans, Evans Larson (612) 338-6999 e-mail susan@evanslarson.com