Beauchamp Recreation and Wellness Center

The new Recreation and Wellness Center at the University of Portland supports a variety of fitness activities during cold, rainy Oregon winters. The project features a highly integrated presentation of architecture and lighting. The project attained LEED Silver.

An Analytical Approach

Housing strength/cardio training, multipurpose group exercise rooms, gymnasiums, a climbing wall, staff offices, and an indoor running track and more, there were a dizzying variety of lighting programs and criteria in play. Rather than lighting the entire facility wall-to-wall to a uniformly high level, we designed around an analysis of adjacent spaces and visitor experience while moving through the facility.

The Entry Sequence

At the main entry, a slot-mounted wall grazer illuminates the signage wall, while an asymmetric ingrade with integral shielding for visual comfort uplights the canopy. In this way, we avoided cutting holes in the canopy for signage and egress lighting.

Moving inside into the lobby, we integrated miniature downlights into the ceiling trellis and linear uplighting into the window mullions to highlight the architectural materials while controlling glare.

The Central Corridor

The facility is organized around a long central corridor. We used the extreme view length to create a feature element, with a graphical pattern of horizontal linear pendants and vertical recessed linears at the portals.

Acoustically, the facility is a break with the typical Gym experience of loud pop music piped in over whizzing treadmills and clanging weights. We tried to follow this lead with the lighting design language, using decorative fixtures with natural materials and soft textures.