The Campus Recreation and Wellness Center landscape provides spill-out spaces for outdoor exercise classes, dining terraces, and study spaces for students—complementing the fitness and wellness focused functions of the building. Nestled into a hillside that navigates 80’ of grade change, one can move seamlessly between the interior and exterior spaces across three different levels of the building and two main entry plazas: one faces the urban fabric of Lower Campus along O’Hara Street while the upper entry plaza acts as a key threshold as character of the landscape shifts from urbane to rusticated. Here, stormwater collected from the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center, the Hillside Project, and the Hillside Housing Project is expressed in a celebratory moment, highlighting the University’s sustainability goals while incorporating Pittsburgh’s industrial heritage through its materiality. Panther Run sits adjacent to the building and turns a long climb (150’ of grade change) into a pleasurable passage. This gesture is expressed with a unique planting character that showcases distinctive, ephemeral blooms.

Role: Consultant to Moody Nolan