A new, 118,000-sq-ft Student Recreation Center is under construction at California State University, Northridge. C.W. Driver is the construction manager at-risk for the $53 million center, which will have an emphasis on student activity and fitness.

Slated to open in January 2012, the project was designed to LEED gold standards by Irvine-based LPA Inc.

“The construction of the new CSUN Student Recreation Center will be highlighted by the structure’s unique steel frame and vast use of glass exteriors,” says C.W. Driver Project Manager John Kately. “The center will have a very off-camber look to it. It is a tilted-type of building with a lot of glass and a structural steel frame that is integral to the function and energy efficient operation of the building systems.”

Located on campus at Prairie Street and Zelzah Avenue, the recreation center will focus on activity and sustainability. Along with cutting-edge exercise equipment, the two-floor structure also will feature a 1/8th-mi running track looping around a mezzanine level, offering drop-down views into the center’s many fitness-oriented amenities.

Contributing to the LEED gold certification efforts will be a complete solar panel installation as well as a ReRev system that will use some of the center’s exercise equipment to generate power for the building. Recycled materials, as well as local/regional materials, also are being used during C.W. Driver’s construction work, along with displacement air, solatubes, solar control fins and perforated metal screens allowing the building to perform 30% better than Title 24 requirements.

Thanks to its open design, natural light will play a big role at the center. Much of the exterior will consist of glass, which will allow natural light to be utilized in 90% of the building’s usable features. On the eastern portion of the structure, C.W. Driver will erect a glass façade acting as a “human billboard” to advertise the activities to the neighboring community. The building itself looks folded, as an envelope would, creating deep overhangs on its west façade and an open feel to the façade facing east.

Additional amenities include a 3,400-sq-ft climbing wall, racquetball and basketball courts, fitness and weight training rooms, group fitness studios that can be used for martial arts, exercise classes and dance, locker rooms, and an outside recreation pool.

CSUN’s Student Recreation Center joins the Valley Performing Arts Center as the two major on-campus projects that C.W. Driver is currently constructing. The 166,000-sq-ft VPAC complex includes a 1,700-seat, multi-purpose concert hall designed to support orchestra, opera, Broadway, film and dance, 175-seat black box theatre, backstage support, classrooms, 230-seat lecture room, rehearsal and events space and a new broadcast facility for KCSN, CSUN’s award-winning radio station. VPAC is slated to officially open in January.

Joining Kately on C.W. Driver’s CSUN Student Recreation Center team are Brett Curry, vice president/project executive; Bruce Campbell, senior superintendent; Matt Christensen, assistant project manager; and Judd Burton, senior project engineer.