Claremont McKenna College’s new 144,000 square-foot Roberts Pavilion dramatically redefines what a college athletic venue can be. An iconic social hub that brings students and faculty together, it demarks a new gateway for the campus while reacting to the push and pull of surrounding buildings, playing fields, and aquatic center. A sensuous, sculptural, even athletic form was used to suggest the College’s ambitious forward-looking outlook, as well as its function as a center of recreation and wellness. A sculpture by artist Chris Burden, installed after his death, sits just outside on the building’s plaza.  

Though its taut form and terra cotta panels create a unified exterior, it is inside that one finds the building’s overlapping circulation elements, enhanced by a great deal of transparency, cutting loose and inviting today’s mobile students to territorialize its spaces in unforeseen ways - whether to study, exercise, or socialize. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the lobby, whose “Character Wall” incorporates important character-building terms in the ten most commonly-used languages on campus, thereby reflecting the global outlook of the College and the creative search common to all academic ventures.