International Architecture Awards Tell a friend

Cincinnati, Ohio, USA | 2015

Architects: Architecture Research Office
Design: Adam Yarinsky, Stephen Cassell, Jeff Hong, Neil Patel, James Henry, Zac Stevens, Danielle Brown, Jason Kim, Mike Holleman, Gordon Smith, Todd Ballew, Kenneth D. Hawthorne, Phillip Lough, Dan Ludington, Jacob Vagts, Heath Washburn, Lydia O’Neal, and Amy Griffin
Associate Architects: Heery International
Client: University of Cincinnati
Contractor: Turner Construction Company
Landscape Architects: Vivian Llambi & Associates
Photographers: Jeremy Bittermann

The project is a new West Pavilion for Nippert Stadium, at the heart of the University of Cincinnati’s campus, which is renowned for its architecture and landscape. The 1924 stadium is surrounded by densely packed buildings and the field is open year-round to students as a campus green.

The 115,000-square foot West Pavilion affirms the stadium as the physical and symbolic center of campus; responds to key views from the campus to the field; sensitively relates to adjacent buildings; enhances pedestrian circulation; provides appropriate programs and sightlines; and integrates flexibility for non-game-day uses.

The building contains premium seating (1,300 club patrons and 18 suites), spacious interior and exterior gathering spaces, amenities and press facilities. It also includes a new footbridge connecting to the adjacent Tangeman University Center (TUC) and a new pedestrian concourse around the west rim of the stadium.

A new public plaza with below-grade restrooms and concessions as well as new restrooms, concessions and circulation on the east side of the stadium further improve the game-day experience and increase the capacity of the stadium from 35,000 to 40,000. The West Pavilion’s design sensitively engages and transforms its context at this prominent location.

The thin, five-hundred-foot long building is elevated twenty feet above grade, with primary entry from the TUC via the footbridge. This sectional strategy preserves the major path between the central campus and student housing to the south.

The form and massing of building make a balanced composition with the existing east stands, define the stadium bowl and respect historic Dieterle Hall as the focal point on the stadium’s central axis.

The building’s dramatic north cantilever frames views into the stadium with the adjacent student recreation center and its stepped massing at the south terrace allows views to the field from the nearby College Conservatory of Music.

Behind a glazed curtain wall that enables views through and from the building, an X-braced structural frame defines the building’s identity.

Diagonally-oriented, parallelogram-shaped glass and metal panels establish a unified composition that is a foil to the varied articulation of surrounding buildings.

Spacious, day-lit interior and exterior gathering spaces are used on game day and extensively throughout the year.

While the West Pavilion is the project’s most prominent element, the project encompasses the entire perimeter of the stadium, to seamlessly integrate with existing public spaces and strengthen the quality of the campus at this dynamic urban location.

Expansive views into the stadium from the pedestrian circulation along the west rim are maintained by maximizing the height of the West Pavilion’s precast club seating. Below-grade restrooms and concessions create a new viewing terrace that blends into granite seating and steps at Bearcat Plaza, a major campus pedestrian intersection.

Overhead, a new footbridge provides primary entry and direct access to the West Pavilion from McMicken Commons via the TUC which greatly improves game-day crowd flow. The east side project similarly includes two levels of circulation that tie into existing terraces, relieving game day flow.