Peter J. Lindberg, M.D., Center for Health and Human Performance to house Augustana College’s new kinesiology program, support expanding public health program, and usher in larger and brighter natatorium
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, positions for physical therapists are anticipated to grow by 22% over the next decade. Accordingly, Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois is constructing the Peter. J. Lindberg, M.D., Center for Health and Human Performance. It will not only create a home for the college’s new kinesiology program and growing public health program, but it will also introduce a new, 25% larger natatorium featuring a 10-lane competition pool that will host the men’s and women’s swim and diving teams, along with new water polo teams for men and women.
Watch this video courtesy Augustana College to learn more about the Lindberg Center:
The 51,000-square-foot facility, designed by Legat Architects and built by Russell, offers specialized kinesiology labs and equipment for students to study everything from range of motion and force on joints to body composition and bone mineral density. Construction, which started in March 2020, is anticipated to finish in May 2021.
Kinesiology: Perform, Gather, Meditate
The main level of the Lindberg Center features a light-filled commons area, as well as labs and equipment that support the study of human movement. A performance lab houses treadmills, bikes, and other equipment. Next door, a fitness lab offers free weights, variable resistance cable machines, and a small running track. Smaller rooms have BOD POD (tests body composition) and DEXA (tests bone mineral density) machines.
The upper floor also has a commons space that overlooks the campus. As visitors approach the facility at night, the large Augustana “A” on the upper-floor commons wall shows through the glass. The upper level houses classrooms, conference rooms, and offices for the kinesiology and public health departments, as well as the focus point of the space: an elliptical meditation room.
Aquatics: Competition and Analysis
The college’s bunker-like old pool facility was dark, dated, and so small that athletes’ backs nearly touched the wall as they climbed the diving board ladder.
The 25% larger, 10-lane (up from six) new competition pool, named after Augustana College women’s athletics pioneer Anne Greve Lund, accommodates 25-meter (length) and 25-yard (width) configurations. Additionally, the main pool has two diving boards (one meter and three meters) and a movable bulkhead that allows flexibility for different uses.
Spaces surrounding the pool include a team room and a coaches’ room with monitors on both sides for teaching. On the south end of the pool, pull-out bleachers above the coaches’ offices can seat up to 200 spectators. Retracting the bleachers creates an open events space that overlooks the pool.
The pool uses a unique lane line storage system—instead of getting wound up around the bulky reels seen at most natatoriums, the lane lines at the Lindberg Center get delivered to the basement through holes in the pool deck.
The aquatics center also has a small, prefabricated therapy pool equipped with cameras that kinesiology students use to analyze motion.
A Model for Bold Innovation
The Lindberg Center sits shoulder to shoulder with many of Augustana College’s most charming historic buildings along 7th Avenue. Its energy-efficient and durable building enclosure is constructed mostly of cost-effective precast concrete. However, at the main entry, blue metal panels frame a glass curtain wall.
Legat’s Ted Haug, project designer, said that the design roots the building “in this time and place. The Lindberg Center respects the traditional architectural vocabulary of its neighbors through its use of integral color precast concrete with thin brick. At the same time, the dramatic glass curtain wall displays the interior and draws students in to experience the facility.”
Students at Augustana are driven to find new solutions for the challenges the world faces. This building is symbolic of the way Augustana leaders model that kind of bold innovation. Rarely on other campuses are facilities designed to deliver students a high-quality academic experience and high-quality extracurricular experience under one roof at the center of the campus.
Contact us to learn more about higher education or recreation facility design or comment below to share your thoughts on this post.
