The new 56,500 square foot basketball development center at UMass Amherst provides identical practice courts, team rooms and administrative centers for men’s and women’s varsity basketball. The programs share a 2,800 square foot weight training center; a 1,700 square foot nutrition center; a 1,900 square foot sports medicine center with a hydrotherapy spa; a 1,200 square foot “Legacy Hall;” and a 24-seat film room.

Located south of the Mullins Center Arena, the building makes a direct connection to the event floor to enable the team rooms to be used during games. Built at the level of the fields, and into the grade eighteen feet below Commonwealth Avenue, the new building is the initial development in the extension of the campus framework to the west. The building is designed to provide entrances that are accessible from the main campus on the east and from the parking supply on the west. A new grand staircase and elevator are incorporated as building features that improve access to the playing fields. Drawing from the surrounding context, the building’s exterior is clad in Portuguese limestone, brick, curtainwall and polycarbonate panels. The transparent facade along Commonwealth Avenue provides visual access to the highly branded “Legacy Hall” (of fame.)

On the south facade, extensive daylighting of the weight room and nutrition area is accomplished with a skin of curtainwall and polycarbonate panel. The project is anticipated to achieve LEED Gold certification.