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FRANK
AND DOROTHY
GRISANTI GYMNASIUM
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA
The recently constructed Frank and Dorothy Grisanti Gymnasium is a 24,000 square-foot K-12 indoor sports facility that was designed for both physical education classes and intramural activities. The structure features a double cross-court gym that accommodates both exhibition basketball and exhibition volleyball. In addition, the building has an 800-seat retractable bleacher system, multiple locker room and shower facilities, a training room, athletic department offices and a 4,000 square-foot second story community room. The gymnasium is one part of the new Crossroads School state-of-the-art sports center. The other facilities include a new aquatics center, which incorporates wave-reduction technology and a soccer field, which features artificial turf.
The gymnasium portion of the building was constructed with an "off-the-shelf" prefabricated metal building system. As it was to be situated adjacent to the new soccer field, there was a concern that the metal siding may sustain damage from errant soccer balls.
The solution to this problem was to incorporate a nine-foot high concrete masonry unit "abuse" wall at the base of the prefabricated metal building. The exposed concrete masonry units became a part of the building design vocabulary and were also included in the two-story conventionally built portion of the gymnasium, as the perimeter enclosure of the adjacent aquatic center and at the base of the 30-foot high decorative chain-link fencing which surrounds the soccer field.
Adding the exposed concrete masonry units to the building provided a design opportunity. Yellow and green, precision-face concrete masonry units were constructed in a pattern to complement the alternating vertical bands of the prefabricated metal paneling. In addition, the patterning, coloring and surface texture of the concrete masonry units created an interesting juxtaposition with the other exterior materials, which included an exterior polymer modified plaster system, glass curtain walls, exposed structural steel posts and decorative metalwork.
ARCHITECT:
Pica
& Sullivan Architects, Ltd.
1036 South Alfred Street
Los Angeles, CA 90035
V.
Joseph Pica
Principal
Steven
H. Klausner
Project Architect
OWNER:
Crossroads
School for Arts
and Sciences
