The new state-of-the-art Bronco Recreation and Intramural Center (BRIC) will serve as the hub for student activity on campus
(POMONA, Calif.) October 31, 2014 — The doors to the Bronco Recreation and Intramural Center at Cal Poly Pomona opened to students on Sep. 24, 2014, but recently, Bronco students, faculty and community members celebrated the official grand opening ceremony of the recreation center.
Designed by sustainable experts at LPA Inc., the 120,000-square-foot, three-story recreation center has quickly become a central hub for student activity on campus. In just one week of opening, nearly half of the student body has registered to join the recreation facility.
Funded by student fees, the facility includes a three-court gymnasium, Multi-Activity-Court (MAC),16,000 square feet of weight and fitness space, five multi-purpose rooms for aerobics, martial arts, spinning and dance classes, a 51-foot rock climbing wall—the largest rock wall in the CSU system and on the western coast—and a 6,500-square-foot pool with showers and lockers. The center also includes a Jamba Juice store for a healthy food and drink option for patrons.
The sustainable recreation center not only provides space for physical activity—it will promote physical, mental and social health. Ozzie Tapia, a Cal Poly Pomona alumnus and LPA Project Designer said, “This school has a place in my heart obviously—it’s my alma mater. And for us to be able to give back in some way—it’s something very special.”
The school is quickly finding that the recreation center is encouraging students to remain on campus longer, meet and mingle with peers and relieve stress in a healthy way.
The sustainable recreation center was voted on by the students, with 98 percent of incoming freshmen students voting in favor of building the facility and 75 percent of those students pledging to spend extra dollars in tuition fees in order to see the building become a reality.
Cora Culla, Executive Director of Associated Student Inc. (ASI), said, “Our students have been really involved with the BRIC project. We worked with LPA on conducting presentations, designed shirts, we reviewed the decisions that we were making for the project with our student leaders and student staff.” She added, “Along the way the students were consulted and I think this really created a sense on their part that they felt invested in the project.”
In addition to the many amenities that students requested, they also had high standards when it comes to the sustainable quotient of the building.
“Since [the students] were actually paying for this facility, they were really clear in the fact that they wanted a facility that expressed their beliefs, and those beliefs included awareness of the environment and making sure that this facility is as sustainable as possible. Not only in construction but how the facility is run and how the systems that allow this facility to run, how those are designed to be able to be as efficient as possible,” said Tapia.
The BRIC will feature sustainable design elements like high-performance stormwater management systems, “cool roof” systems and maximized access to daylighting to reduce the amount of energy needed, thermal displacement ventilation in large two-story gymnasium, mixed-mode naturally ventilated three-story lobby and passive solar protection via fritted glass fins and strategically located ribbon windows shaded by floor cantilevers above. The smaller sustainable features, but no less important, include the recycled materials or locally manufactured materials used on the project, low-flow plumbing fixtures, solar water-heating system for the pool and the landscape maintained with greywater. The facility is registered and on track to receive LEED Gold certification this fall.
The project is LPA’s fourth student recreation center within the California State University (CSU) system, which includes Sonoma State University, Cal State East Bay and Cal State Northridge. Cal Poly Pomona now joins the roster of 14 CSU campuses that have a recreation center in operation or under construction.
The success of the new recreation center is evident by the amount of positive feedback from the students themselves. More than 11,000 students—or about half of the school’s eligible student population—have already registered for BRIC membership. Culla added, “[This is a] project led by students, funded by students and for the students … this is a testament to what students are capable of doing for their campus and for the students who come here today and also for the students who are yet to come here at Cal Poly Pomona.”
Project Address:
Cal Poly Pomona
3801 W. Temple Avenue
Pomona, CA 91768
About LPA Inc.
Founded in 1965, LPA has more than 220 employees with offices in Irvine, Roseville, San Diego and San Jose, California and San Antonio, Texas. The firm provides services in architecture, sustainability, planning, interior design, landscape architecture, engineering, and graphics. There is no “Sustainability Director,” at LPA. Instead, more than 80 percent of the professionals are LEED accredited, including the Human Resources Director, CFO, and several other support staff. With extensive experience in public and private architecture, LPA designs a diversity of facilities that span from K-12 Schools, colleges and universities to corporate and civic establishments. More than 600 major design awards attest to LPA’s commitment to design excellence. For more information, visit www.LPADesignStudios.com
