Health and Wellness Center – Suffolk County Community College

Riverhead, USA

Photo © James Ewing

Longitudinal Section

Drawing © ikon.5 architects

Photo © James Ewing

Drawing © James Ewing

Transverse Section

Drawing © ikon.5 architects

Photo © James Ewing

arkkitehdit: ikon.5 architects

Location: Riverhead, USA
Year: 2019
Client: Suffolk County Community College
Architect of Record: Wiedersum Associates Architects
Severud Associates: Structural Engineer
Civil Engineer: Sidney B. Bowne & Son
MEP/F Engineer: Lizardos
Landscape Architect: RDA Landscape Architects
Natatorium Specialist: Councilman-Hunsaker
Contractor: Sea Crest Construction

The Health and Wellness Center is a 45,000-square-foot academic and recreation facility that contains teaching spaces for the Department of Nursing and Physical Education, as well as recreation spaces for students, faculty, and the Eastern Long Island community. Inspired by the East End Long Island Pine Barrens where this campus is set, the Center for Health and Wellness’s custom-fabricated precast concrete panels and glass façade are modeled after abstracted representations of pine bark to highlight the importance of the natural environment in establishing the unique architectural character of Suffolk Community College and to create a building that evokes the neighboring stand of pine trees along the southern edge of campus. The Health and Wellness Center extends the existing campus plan by creating a second campus quadrangle—the new recreation quad—that will house a future multi-purpose field. The center is organized around a sun-drenched double-height lobby and soaring rock-climbing wall that leads to a fitness room and locker rooms and is flanked by a gymnasium and a natatorium for recreation and NCAA competitions.