Abstract:
The project is proposed for Ball State University, a publicly supported state university enrolling 18,000 students, located in Muncie, Indiana. The current facility, located just north of University Gym, has grown dramatically over the last ten years into a 10,000 square foot complex. Research, involving humans and animals, focuses on the physiology of speed and endurance. Participants in testing range from Ball State students and athletes to world class runners and professional football players.The new Human Performance Lab will be located on the Northeast corner of McKinley Avenue and Petty Road between University Gym and the Lewellen Aquatic Center in an effort to reinforce the functional relationships between it and other elements of the Physical Education Department, Its location is a prominent site appropriate for a facility which may be a regional base for sports medicine and research.It is important that, on the outside, the building portray a positive public image while, at the same time, respecting the needs of privacy necessary for the research and testing going on inside. It should respect the existing building context both in scale, form and material while attempting to convey its own personality by expression of interior function through its exterior vocabulary.
