From the Inside Out

Kinesiology and athletics facilities offer an opportunity-rich challenge, where many interrelated pieces come together to support campus life. The value lies in thoughtfully arranging each component to unlock a flexible, multi-purpose environment. The path to better outcomes starts with a different design approach.

By Joann Plockova

Perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Santa Barbara City College is constructing a new Physical Education and Athletics Center to replace
a 50-year-old facility. Developed in close collaboration with administrators, faculty, staff, students, coaches and the community, the project fully embraces its spectacular setting while seizing the opportunity to align diverse program elements, athletic teams and support spaces into an efficient response that promotes transparency and intuitive wayfinding, while carefully managing privacy and sensitive sightlines.

The design also resolves significant site challenges, enabling accessible circulation across a 60-foot grade change between the upper campus and the lower fields and parking, and is engineered to withstand tidal surges from the Pacific Ocean. In response to the college’s commitment to community engagement, gender equality and universal access, the new facility incorporates shared spaces that welcome both campus and community. Like a perfectly solved puzzle, the design integrates these elements into a cohesive, streamlined facility — providing grade-level access on all four floors cascading down the hillside.

“We’re utilizing the site much more efficiently,” says Kathleen O’Connor, associate professor and department chair and athletic academic advisor at Santa Barbara City College. “We learned that we had a lot of space in the old building that was not really used well, and we were able to translate that into an extra activity room.”

Often mistaken for simple “big box” gyms, kinesiology and athletics facilities are among the most layered and underappreciated buildings on a college campus. They house an extraordinary variety of space types, each requiring precise adjacencies, supervision and operational needs. Serving students, athletes, faculty and the broader community throughout the day and night, these facilities must balance privacy and security with openness and access. The desired result is a carefully orchestrated environment where many moving parts come together to support all users.

These facilities require a different approach than a standard architectural design process, says Steve Flanagan, LPA’s Director of Higher Education. Instead of starting with the exterior design — the big box — and then arranging the spaces to fit inside, the programming of the interior planning needs to drive the design process.

“You’ve got to start accounting for the different uses before you even think about what it looks like on the outside,” Flanagan says. “More than any other project type, form truly follows function.”

A New Campus Destination

As many community colleges look to attract students and keep them on campus longer, kinesiology and athletics facilities can address issues far beyond competitive sports. A focus on health and wellness can drive more impactful outcomes, several research projects have concluded. A 2021 study by West Virginia University Campus Recreation found an 8% higher retention rate among first-year students who use campus life facilities like student unions, recreation centers and participate in athletics; the rate was even higher for low-income and higher risk groups.

For decades, colleges have expanded and enhanced athletic facilities to attract and inspire students, especially those from underserved communities who may not otherwise see higher education as an accessible path. San Diego’s Mesa College recently selected LPA to design a Kinesiology Sports & Sciences complex that is replacing a 1960s-era gym. (LPA is collaborating with San Diego Community College District, Kitchell construction managers and C.W. Driver as part of a design-build team.) The project scope includes multiple one-, two-, and three-story buildings totaling more than 135,000 square feet of new practice and competition facilities. These facilities will include classrooms, study areas, exercise studios, weight rooms, a three-court gymnasium, training rooms, team rooms, locker rooms and offices. The project also encompasses outdoor athletic facilities for training and competition, including new softball, beach volleyball, and aquatics venues, as well as renovated fields and stadiums for baseball, football, soccer, and track and field.

“College is all about discovering how to find your place in the world through a journey of social and self-exploration and understanding what a more balanced lifestyle might be,” says LPA Design Director Ozzie Tapia. “These kinds of physical education and kinesiology-type facilities are becoming destinations that are integral components of the campus’s social fabric.”

For Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California, a new physical education complex needed to function as a front-facing entrance to the campus and a connector to other existing athletic amenities. Campus leaders wanted the single-level facility, including two exterior pools, to relate to the existing buildings, while providing a path for students that would get them more engaged with health and wellness.

“The challenge was, how do we compose a building that allows the students to effortlessly navigate and also display the programs and activities found within?” Tapia says. “The solution not only provided additional amenities to serve all those surrounding buildings, it became a new campus gateway to the community.”

“The big idea” for Rio Hondo was a prominent interior circulation route, a Hall of Champions, connecting the various programs, including a 7,500-square-foot fitness center and several multipurpose exercise studios. This promenade puts the programs on display and makes them easily accessible to everyone on campus. “That was the simple yet powerful idea that started to create an order and a logic for how all the different programs could be arranged internally,” Tapia says.

For Santa Barbara College, universal locker rooms are also part of the mix, in addition to men’s and women’s gendered locker rooms. That spirit of inclusion and accommodating different needs extends to all aspects of the facilities.

A Welcoming Environment

At their heart, kinesiology facilities should feel welcoming to all, not just athletes. Putting programs on display and improving transparency attracts students and removes some of the barriers to participation. Ensuring a safe and welcoming space was at the heart of the new Kinesiology and Athletics Complex for Los Medanos College in Pittsburgh, California, which was built alongside a student union. Together, the two facilities were designed to support student life and foster a sense of belonging.

“From the start, we were trying to solve for inclusivity,” says LPA Design Director Winston Bao. “The sense of belonging, where all students feel welcomed whether you were taking a class or using the facility for open fitness.”

Divided into two connected sites, the 30,450-square-foot sports and kinesiology complex also includes gender-inclusive restrooms and a legacy gallery adorned with murals of student athletes in action. Support spaces like offices, a training room and locker rooms are grouped together with a central equipment room on one side; and on the other, an open fitness room, dance and fitness studios and classrooms.

“A clear sense of wayfinding and having that clarity of where certain things happen was very important to the client,” says Bao. “But the zoned spaces weren’t so overly tailored that they couldn’t be adaptable or flexible 10 or 20 years from now — hence a ‘loose fit’ approach.”

Flexibility is essential for facilities that must constantly adapt to changing needs. That flexibility often can be found in small choices. In the Santa Barbara facility, the second-floor gym will include access from inside and outside, which makes the space more user-friendly and adaptable. A new entry lobby can be used for various activities, from fundraising to team events; the furniture is going to be moveable. “It will be more user-friendly and more adaptable,” O’Connor says. “It’s going to be an area that can be used by not just us but by the campus and the community.”

A Community Effort

From the start, Santa Barbara College leaders knew they wanted more from the new facility, but they weren’t sure what was possible after 50 years in the same building.

“It was very exciting to talk to a firm [LPA] that understood physical education and athletics,” O’Connor says. “They had a vision for a building that I think really matched what we had in mind.”

LPA developed an extensive outreach effort that included campus administrators, athletic director, coaches, staff, faculty, students and the surrounding community. Open forums brought together students and educators to define their priorities. Posters with varying concepts were placed in hallways for faculty and students to provide feedback.

“I think LPA was amazing from the beginning, encouraging input,” O’Connor says. “They were always open to suggestions we had, or ideas or recommendations.”

Many of the elements of the new facility will be distinct to Santa Barbara City College, reflecting the input. Gender equality, accessibility and efficiency were top priorities. Compact locker room and team rooms improved efficiency and left more space for an expanded training room. Locker rooms and storage were placed at field level, where only the training room is visible on one side. Public spaces like fitness studios and the gym are located on the second and third floors, where they have more perimeter access to daylight and views.

“It just takes advantage of where we are,” O’Connor says.

The project is currently under construction, with Kitchell serving as the owner’s representative managing the construction phase and PCL Construction acting as the general contractor responsible for delivering the project.

By designing these multifunctional kinesiology facilities from the inside out, it’s possible to create safe, flexible, efficient spaces where a sense of belonging and pride extends to students, faculty and the community.

“Athletics in general has a huge impact on the community, as well as enrollment and the bottom line,” Flanagan says. “Investing the time to start the design focused on how people use spaces will create a long-term return-on-investment.”

A design writer for over a decade, Joann Plockova covers architecture, interiors, landscape architecture and urbanism for publications like The New York Times, Dwell, Architectural Record and Interior Design. Her latest book, Courtyard Homes, was published by Monacelli Press in October 2025.