The Cabrini Athletic Pavilion is the first phase in the implementation of a new campus master plan for Cabrini University in Radnor, PA. The new Athletic Pavilion, completed in August 2016, is designed to serve as a great room that connects the various programmatic spaces in a central area at the threshold between the existing center and the new building; a strategy that promotes social connectivity between various user groups of students, faculty and staff, as well as neighbors in the surrounding community who are welcome to use the facility.
The 17,000-sf renovation and 28,000-sf new facility provides for the University’s increased demand for fitness and wellness spaces for the general student population, and will also provide support facilities for team athletics, with dedicated spaces for athletic strength and conditioning programs as well locker and trainer’s facilities. The design of the new Athletic Pavilion provides a lightness and transparency that promotes a connection between the campus and surrounding environment.
Responding to the master plan’s desire to create an enhanced network of connectivity on campus, the Athletic Pavilion is configured to maximize connections to nature, and serve as a destination in the larger campus plan. The main entrance provides a visibly seamless threshold between the new entry plaza and interior lobby space, allowing exterior spaces to be activated by adjacent interior programs, and interior spaces to showcase expansive views of the surrounding landscape. In contrast to the existing, inward-focused athletic center, this collection of spaces extends interior programs outward, and exterior visual connections inward.
