Spring Creek Sports Complex

ASK Studio

Recognitions: 2012 Design Awards

Project Description

The pragmatic program of concessions and restrooms belies the significance of community pride embodied in youth sports facilities. The facility reflects a community’s values and investments and the position of the structure represents the entry portal to this community showcase. The material selections are based on durability and longevity with burnished block walls, steel posts and steel beams being the major system components. The roof system is comprised of wood purlins and decking. Wood is used as a reflection of the rural vernacular of a site that recently saw its last harvest. The roofs are metal, a reflection of nearby farming structures. The final acknowledgement of the buildings' debt to vernacular systems is natural lighting. Much like a modern machine shed, the buildings’ opaque walls are topped with translucent panels under the protection of the eaves. The structure, using an agrarian dialect, is an assemblage based on three guiding principles: Marker, Shelter and Portal. Marker: The structure guides visitors to a point of entry in a collection of open fields. The use of a mono-pitch roof accentuates height and serves as the park’s campanile. Shelter: The roof image is intended to convey shelter. The major roof plane is accentuated by scale. The message is reinforced with the “float” of the plane through pronounced edges and lighting that disengages the roof from supporting walls. Portal: The simple axial relationship from the parking to centerline of the championship field is framed by buildings and free-standing walls composed to make the path obvious. The resulting processional reinforces the sense of arrival through spatial drama. Compressed in width and height, a Venturi effect is imposed on visitors as they are released by the soar of the roof and the splay of building forms opening toward the fields.