Purdue University Football Performance Complex
West Lafayette, Indiana, United States
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Typologies
Training Facilities
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Building Activities
American Football
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Services
Architecture, Brand Activation
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Completion
2017
CHALLENGE. Purdue University has built a reputation on building things, but its student-athletes’ most precious resource — time — can’t be manufactured. So when we started master planning the future of the football program with stakeholders, bringing time on the side of student-athletes emerged as a main goal.
Historically, members of the team shuffled back and forth between a handful of buildings over the course of a day. Time in transit siphoned away valuable minutes, while a space crunch left the team short on lockers and improvising meeting space at times. The Purdue University Football Performance Complex was a direct response to these needs.
INNOVATION. The complex, beaming with a glass curtain wall and a Purdue palette of old gold and black, is the first thing you see as you approach campus from the north. A bold roof line resembling two planes in flight pays homage to the university’s heritage as an aviation and astronautic pioneer. Situated in between the team’s outdoor and indoor practice fields, the facility is perfectly positioned as a hub for the team.
A team hall runs along the north side of the structure and acts as its spine, connecting team spaces on the lower level, meeting rooms in the middle and administrative offices above that.
The complex’s more than 20,000 square feet of weight room is a strength coach’s dream, boasting enough space and strategically-positioned equipment to train the entire team at the same time. The impact on camaraderie is obvious in a sport used to dividing schedules up by positions.
IMPACT. The Football Performance Complex’s impact can be felt well beyond West Lafayette. The Big Ten conference is itself in the midst of a transformation, one headlined by recent expansion, a growing television network and an emphasis on facility infrastructure. One of the conference’s original members, Purdue now has time on its side and stands toe-to-toe with its peers in performance training.
Populous exceeded our expectations by delivering a facility that is extremely well-suited for its purpose.
Michael R. Berghoff / Chairman, Purdue Trustees
Facts and Figures
- Facility size
- 112,000 square feet
- Custom wood lockers
- 120
- Weight room size
- 20,900 square feet
- Project cost
- $65 million
