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The Lawrenceville School Tsai Commons and Field House
The Lawrenceville School Tsai Commons and Field House
Lawrence Township, NJ, United States
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Other Projects by Sasaki
The Lawrenceville School Tsai Commons and Field House
Lawrence Township, NJ, United States
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2024
SIZE
100,000 sqft - 300,000 sqft
BUDGET
$50M - 100M
Located at the crossroads of the Lawrenceville School Campus, The Tsai Commons and Field House repositions the school’s student life programs by bringing together recreation, wellness, athletics, and dining into one interconnected environment. The building’s circulation manifests as a connective tissue linking all programs, marked by warm wooden materials across the floors, ceilings, and walls.
The project includes the addition of new facilities including an ice rink, basketball gym, eight-lane swimming pool, multipurpose fitness rooms, and a dining hall, as well as the restoration of the historic field house. The new dining facility accommodates over 500 students, staff, and faculty daily. A mezzanine dedicated to freshmen helps create a sense of belonging for new students, and the main floor is subdivided into modules to foster community.
At a larger scale, the project includes a new gateway and entry road for the campus, as well as new field and track facilities. An oval-shaped courtyard, inspired by the school's use of the Harkness educational model, which uses student-centered discussion around an oval table to encourage critical thinking and inclusive dialogue, greets people as they approach the complex.
A departure from traditional recreational structures which are often characterized by large, imposing structures and uninterrupted horizontal volumes, the complex maintains the scale and material palette reflective of its surrounding campus structures. To accomplish this while meeting programming requirements and operating within the site’s constraints, large venues such as the swimming pool, ice rink, and basketball courts are tucked into the sloping site topography, taking advantage of the height difference of the site in section while leaving the upper floor as a concourse level for user and spectator visibility into the venues below.
The approach to keep the new Field House at a comparable height was a key parameter for design, especially because of its closeness to the student houses and the Kirby Science building. The large volumes for the pool, ice, and basketball are depressed and buried at a lower level, taking advantage of the height difference of the site in section, and leaving the upper floor as a concourse level from which the spectator can look down into all the venues.
Inspired by the existing field house’s silhouette, the new field house honors the fillet curved profile and gives the building its unique character by joining two straight sections with a curved peak. This simple move of concave ceilings creates a profile of curves that allow for lateral light through the clerestories at the dining hall and bring volume to the pool and ice rink, while articulating the facility’s design into a series of distinct and interconnected pavilions.
The project includes the addition of new facilities including an ice rink, basketball gym, eight-lane swimming pool, multipurpose fitness rooms, and a dining hall, as well as the restoration of the historic field house. The new dining facility accommodates over 500 students, staff, and faculty daily. A mezzanine dedicated to freshmen helps create a sense of belonging for new students, and the main floor is subdivided into modules to foster community.
At a larger scale, the project includes a new gateway and entry road for the campus, as well as new field and track facilities. An oval-shaped courtyard, inspired by the school's use of the Harkness educational model, which uses student-centered discussion around an oval table to encourage critical thinking and inclusive dialogue, greets people as they approach the complex.
A departure from traditional recreational structures which are often characterized by large, imposing structures and uninterrupted horizontal volumes, the complex maintains the scale and material palette reflective of its surrounding campus structures. To accomplish this while meeting programming requirements and operating within the site’s constraints, large venues such as the swimming pool, ice rink, and basketball courts are tucked into the sloping site topography, taking advantage of the height difference of the site in section while leaving the upper floor as a concourse level for user and spectator visibility into the venues below.
The approach to keep the new Field House at a comparable height was a key parameter for design, especially because of its closeness to the student houses and the Kirby Science building. The large volumes for the pool, ice, and basketball are depressed and buried at a lower level, taking advantage of the height difference of the site in section, and leaving the upper floor as a concourse level from which the spectator can look down into all the venues.
Inspired by the existing field house’s silhouette, the new field house honors the fillet curved profile and gives the building its unique character by joining two straight sections with a curved peak. This simple move of concave ceilings creates a profile of curves that allow for lateral light through the clerestories at the dining hall and bring volume to the pool and ice rink, while articulating the facility’s design into a series of distinct and interconnected pavilions.
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