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Projects   Project Portfolio – January 2007
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Richard E. Lindner Athletics Center, University of Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio
Bernard Tschumi Architects

With a curvy building that flexes its muscle quite elegantly, Bernard Tschumi creates the Lindner Athletics Center for the University of Cincinnati  

 


Photo © Peter Mauss/Esto
   

By Sarah Amelar

With an elongated kidney bean of a plan, the Richard E. Lindner Athletics Center slips sleekly into a tight and jaggedly irregular site at the University of Cincinnati. Though the client had given architect Bernard Tschumi, AIA, his pick of campus locations—and had not even considered offering such a stunningly cramped spot—the architect went right for this challenging scrap of land, squeezed by a football stadium, a basketball arena, and Morphosis’s Campus Recreation Center.

“The idea of finding a simple solution to an extremely complex problem has always interested me,” Tschumi explains. “And I saw this as a building about constraints, always in relation to what’s immediately around it.” But the university told him he could not build on that site. The constraints were more severe than he had realized: There, an existing building’s underground mechanicals, requiring very long, column-free spans, would have to remain, along with access to its loading docks. But the more complicated the mix, the more this swatch of land enticed him. Proposing preliminary schemes with the necessary access points and spans, Tschumi ultimately convinced his client.

Certainly, the narrow parcel cuts across an especially congested zone, but in truth, very few sites at the University of Cincinnati would have been simple. With a mélange of skewed axes and a football stadium in an oddly central location, the campus had evolved haphazardly as a commuter realm, rife with parking lots. Then, in 1989, the university launched an ambitious, 15-year building campaign, aspiring to transform the campus into an architecturally significant and cohesive domain. With a master plan by George Hargreaves, the school gradually commissioned projects by a cast of marquee architects, including Frank Gehry and Peter Eisenman.

The last commission went to Tschumi for the 236,000-square-foot Lindner Center. The $53 million structure would need 30,000 square feet of offices (to accommodate all the coaches in a single building for the first time), along with a sports-event ticketing center, a 335-seat auditorium, a permanent-exhibition gallery, a gift shop, a computer lab, tutoring and study rooms, a team practice gymnasium, university health services and sports medicine facilities, classrooms, and a two-story faculty club.

Want the full story? Read the entire article in our January 2007 issue.
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the People

Owner
University of Cincinnati

Architect:
Bernard Tschumi Architects
227 West 17th Street
New York, New York 10011
212-807-6340p
212-242-3693f
www.tschumi.com

Bernard Tschumi Architects Team:  Bernard Tschumi, AIA principal and lead designer: Kim Starr, project manager; Phu Hoang, Robert Holton, Jane Kim, Nicolas Martin, Eva Sopeoglou, Joel Aviles, Chong-zi Chen, Irene Cheng, Jonathan Chace, Adam Dayem, William Feuerman, Thomas Goodwill, Daniel Holguin, Matthew Hufft, Michaela Metcalf, Valentin Bontjes van Beek, Allis Chee, Justin Moore

Architect of Record:
 glaserworks (Cincinnati, OH)
www.glaserworks.com

Glaserworks Team:
 Principal-in-Charge: Arthur A. Hupp, AIA; Principal: Michael J. Moose, AIA, (site coordination); Project Managers: Kevin Morris, Mark Thurnauer; Project Architect: Rick Fohl, David Zelman; Project Team: Travis Bechtel; Construction Administration:  Michael Maltinsky; Other team members: Rob Hibbard, Matt Mattone, Martin Rose, Mincho Petkov, Ravit Kaplan, David Besso

Interior designer:
Museum Graphics and trophy case:
Perkins + Will | Eva Maddox Branded Environments (Chicago, IL)
www.perkinswill.com
www.evamaddox.com

Engineer(s):
Structural, MEP Engineers: 
THP Ltd. (Cincinnati, OH)
www.thpltd.com

Arup (New York, NY)
www.arup.com

Consultant(s)

Landscape:
Human Nature (Cincinnati, OH)
(513) 281-2211

Lighting:
Atrium Lighting and Daylighting studies:
Arup Lighting (New York, NY)
www.arup.com

Acoustical:
Arup Acoustics (New York, NY)
www.arup.com

Other:
Master Plan Consultants:
Hargreaves Associates (Cambridge, MA)
www.hargreaves.com/

Signage and Graphics:
Kolar Design/Marcia Shortt Design (Cincinnati, OH)
www.kolardesign.net

General contractor(s):

Construction Manager:
Turner Construction Company (Cincinnati, OH)
www.turnerconstruction.com

Photographer

Esto Photographics, Inc.
222 Valley Place
Mamaromeck, NY 10543
914-698-4060p
www.esto.com

Peter Mauss/Esto

the Products

Structural system:
Metal/glass curtain wall:
Aluminum Curtainwall
Tubelite
www.tubelite.com

Concrete:
Pre-cast Concrete
High Concrete Technology (Springboro, OH)
www.highconcrete.com

Windows

Aluminum:
Custom triangle shaped windows
Waltek (Cincinnati, OH)
www.waltekltd.com/

Glazing

Glass:
Exterior Glazing
Viracon
www.viracon.com

Skylights:
Polycarbonate unit skylights
Naturalite
www.vistawall.com

Doors

Entrances:
Aluminum storefront/entrances
Tubelite
www.tubelite.com

Interior finishes

Acoustical ceilings:
Perforated metal ceilings
Hunter Douglas
www.hunterdouglas.com

Cabinetwork and custom woodwork:
Millwork, including lockers
Wittrock Woodworking Inc. (Cincinnati, OH)

Other:
Interior (Atrium) aluminum storefronts
Tubelite
www.tubelite.com

Interior (Atrium) storefront glazing
Viracon
www.viracon.com

Interior (Atrium) glass railings
Newman Brothers, (Cincinnati, OH)
www.newmanbrothers.com

Interior (Atrium) glazed masonry
Trenwyth
www.trenwyth.com/

Wall coverings:

Special surfacing:
Acoustic wall treatment
Tectum
www.tectum.com

Floor and wall tile

Terrazzo flooring (in Atrium)
Key Resin Company (Batavia, OH)
www.keyresin.com

Furnishings

Fixed seating:
Auditorium Seating
K.I.
www.ki.com

Conveyance

Elevators/Escalators:
Elevators
Otis Gen2
www.otis.com
 
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