Alumni led sports performance center project earns AIA award

The Buffalo/WNY Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) — the leading professional membership association for licensed architects, emerging professionals and allied partners — has honored UB with a 2024 Architecture Design Merit Award in the category of Institutional/Educational for the Brittany Murchie Mulla Sports Performance Center.

The award acknowledges outstanding projects that exemplify the best of quality, innovation and collaboration in the profession.

The award was presented at the AIA Buffalo/WNY’s 2024 Design Awards Gala, held last month in downtown Buffalo.

The Brittany Murchie Mulla Sports Performance Center, designed by Architectural Resources of Buffalo and led by architects and UB alumni Mike Tuzzo, Peter Murad and James Maurer, is an elite training facility for all UB student-athletes.

“The Brittany Murchie Mulla Sports Performance Center was designed to be a welcoming space for our student-athletes to strengthen their skills and build community,” says Kelly Hayes McAlonie, director of campus planning. “It is an important example of how we are transforming our campuses into student-centric places. I am grateful to the AIA for recognizing our work and aspirations. I am also grateful to our design consultant, Architectural Resources, for their responsiveness to our vision of creating a welcoming beacon for our student-athletes.”

The award jury noted that the sports performance center scored major points “for its numerous sustainable design achievements, including net-zero energy, full electrification and the use of Passive House (energy efficiency) strategies. Design moves, such as the mezzanine workout area for recovering athletes and the open site lines from coaches’ offices to the workout area, ensure a safe and inclusive sports facility. Exterior material choices allow the sports performance center to present as a visually logical extension of the existing fieldhouse. The clean façade demonstrates commendable restraint where other campus sports facilities tend to over-brand.”

Here are a few of the architectural highlights from the project statement:

• The net-zero energy facility is driven by a commitment to sustainable design and occupant wellness.
• High-performance glazing on the southern and western façades invites natural daylighting, providing a visual connection to interior features, including the turf ramp, and frame a view back toward UB Stadium.
• The horizontal roof, derived from the massing of the adjacent fieldhouse, produces shading during the summer months while allowing solar heat gain during the winter.
• The northern side of the building is wrapped in above-code insulation to minimize heat loss.
• The direct connection between the existing fieldhouse and the exercise floor was tailored to the specific requirements and sequencing of the athletic programs’ exercise routines. Co-locating these facilities has allowed UB Athletics to maintain team unity during all workouts within a space that can accommodate 70 athletes at a time.

The award jury, comprised of five local architects and members of AIA, selected a single project in each category to honor distinguished achievement, recognizing nine recipients in categories that included community, merit, design and architecture.

Several UB students and faculty members also received awards at the gala.