University of California, Santa Barbara

Consolidating the UCSB athletic department’s programmatic and symbolic presence in one building, the Intercollegiate Athletics Building encompasses staff offices, student-life activities, and weight and therapeutic training facilities. Training facilities are accessed via a separate entrance facing an existing gymnasium housing athletic facilities. The two buildings are synergistic in urbanism and function, as the athletes use both in concert, enlivening the department’s “gateway” during daily use. Adjacent to a pedestrian thoroughfare connecting the campus’s north and south zones, the complex forms a symbolic bridge between academic and athletic facilities. With its sequence of courtyards and patios, the building capitalizes upon Santa Barbara’s climate and regional vernacular.