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CAMPBELL SPORTS CENTER, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

New York, United States. 2013

Description +

PROGRAM: strength and conditioning spaces, offices for varsity sports, theater-style meeting rooms, a hospitality suite, and student-athlete study rooms.

CLIENT: Columbia University

SIZE: 48,000 sq ft

STATUS: Complete

Located on the corner of West 218th street and Broadway — the northernmost edge of Manhattan, where Broadway crosses with Tenth Avenue and the elevated tracks of the 1 subway line — the Campbell Sports Center forms a new gateway to the Baker Athletics Complex, the primary athletics facility for Columbia University’s outdoor sports program.

The first new athletics building to be constructed on Columbia University’s campus since the Marcellus Hartley Dodge Physical Fitness Center was built in the mid-1970s, the Campbell Sports Center is the new cornerstone of the revitalized Baker Athletics Complex and provides increased program space for the entire intercollegiate athletics program. The facility, which adds approximately 48,000 square foot of space, houses strength and conditioning spaces, offices for varsity sports, theater-style meeting rooms, a hospitality suite and student-athlete study rooms.

The Campbell Sports Center aims at serving the mind, the body and the mind/body for aspiring scholar-athletes. The design concept “points on the ground, lines in space” — like field play diagrams used for football, soccer, and baseball — develops from point foundations on the sloping site. Just as points and lines in diagrams yield the physical push and pull on the field, the building’s elevations push and pull in space.

The building shapes an urban corner on Broadway and 218th street, then lifts up to form a portal, connecting the playing field with the streetscape. Extending over a stepped landscape, blue soffits heighten the openness of the urban scale portico to the Baker Athletics Complex. Terraces and external stairs, which serve as “lines in space,” draw the field play onto and into the building and give views from the upper levels over the field and Manhattan.

Films on The Campbell Sports Center are available on Vimeo at the links below:
Campbell Sports Center
Campbell Sports Center, a Conversation with Steven Holl and Chris McVoy

Ecological Innovation +

LEED Gold

Videos +

  • Campbell Sports Center, a Conversation with Steven Holl and Chris McVoy
  • Campbell Sports Center

Credits +

  • architect

    - Steven Holl Architects

    Steven Holl (design architect, principal)

    Chris McVoy (partner in charge)

    Olaf Schmidt (associate in charge)

    Marcus Carter, Xi Chen, Christiane Deptolla, Peter Englaender, Runar Halldorsson, Jackie Luk, Filipe Taboada, Dimitra Tsachrelia, Ebbie Wisecarver (project team)

  • construction manager

    - Structuretone / Pavarini McGovern

  • structural engineer

    - Robert Silman Associates

  • MEP engineer

    - ICOR Associates

  • civil engineer

    - Hirani Engineering

  • sustainability engineer

    - Transsolar

  • curtain wall consultant

    - W.J. Higgins

  • lighting consultant

    - Wald Studio

  • audio/visual consultant

    - The Clarient Group

  • acoustical consultant

    - Cerami Associates

  • code consultant

    - Design 2147 Limited

  • cost

    - Davis Langdon

  • specifications

    - Construction Specifications Inc.

  • precast plank

    - Conewago

  • steel

    - Weir Welding

  • facade fabrication

    - Architectural Wall Systems

  • facade installation

    - City Newark Glass

Quotes +


  • Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times, March 2013 "[Campbell Sports Center] is a tough, sophisticated and imaginative work of architecture for a devilish site. The real art comes down to how the center interacts with what’s around it: the raised subway tracks in one direction, the soccer field in another, the residential buildings in yet another and Broadway Bridge on the skyline. Inwood is a wonderful part of town. Campbell now adds to it."

News +


  • 2013 05/01 Game Changer
  • 2013 07/01 Campbell Sports Centre
  • 2013 07/15 Architecture Again
  • 2013 06/01 Atterrare su North Manhattan / Landing in North Manhattan
  • 2013 09/01 Campbell Sports Center
  • 2013 03/25 Jocks, Meet Artists

Awards +


  • 2013 MUNICIPAL ART SOCIETY 2013 MASTERWORKS AWARD FOR BEST NEW BUILDING
  • 2013 OUTSTANDING PROJECTS, GREATER NEW YORK CONSTRUCTION USER COUNCIL
  • 2013 ACEC NEW YORK PLATINUM AWARD, BUILDING/TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS
  • 2014 BUILDING OF THE YEAR, THE ARCHITECT'S NEWSPAPER
  • 2014 AIA NY DESIGN HONOR AWARD
  • 2014 AIA NYS DESIGN MERIT AWARD
  • 2014 THE INTERNATIONAL ARCHITECTURE AWARD, THE CHICAGO ATHENAEUM MUSEUM OF ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
  • 2013 SEAoNY EXCELLENCE IN STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING AWARD
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