Adkins Field House: It's CCU's first 'green' building
Lights that turn on and off without a switch. Toilets that flush upwards or downwards, depending on what you, er, do. Lockers with cooling fans for the equipment and backlights for the players' names. A weight room where you don't bump up next to your neighbor, and offices that look out over the football field. And don't forget the teal-and-green fire hydrant just outside the building.It's the Adkins Field House, now complete (end zone bleachers will be installed in late July or early August to add 1,600 extra seats), and its constituents – student athletes, coaches and their support staff – couldn't be happier. Most everyone has moved out of the portables and into their new digs except for the baseball team (coaches went out recruiting following the Super Regionals). The softball coaches were on the road for games and planned to move in later in the month. Volleyball and basketball coaches and staff will move into the new Student Recreation and Convocation Center when it is complete.
Jill Kingston, administrative assistant in football, says the new work space is "a blessing. It makes it easier to be organized and get work done without hearing everyone else's phone ringing."
The 55,400-square-foot building is built on the north end of Brooks Stadium and features a 9,000-square-foot weight room on the first floor. The cardio room is upstairs and looks down on the glassed-in weight room. The weight room is four times larger than the previous one. Football players and cheerleaders are already using both.
It is also the first "green" building on campus, energy efficient and fully certified Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) silver, a benchmark for high-performance green buildings.
In order to achieve this silver certification, the building needed to earn a minimum of 33 points for its design. The building was awarded points for the sustainable features that were incorporated into the design, such as water-use reduction through the use of low-flow toilets, energy-use reduction though the use of more efficient lighting and better ventilation systems.
Since the football team's old meeting room behind the ticket office has been freed up, it has become the Will Garland Academic Enhancement Center, headed by Joe Mazurkiewicz, one of three counselors who help student-athletes reach their full potential. Compared to the cramped portable space they have been working in, the new center is a dream.
In addition to the weight rooms for CCU's 17 sports programs, there are also meeting rooms, offices and the George F. "Buddy" Sasser Hall of Fame on the third floor where donor receptions and the like may take place.
A big meeting room at the end of the building (rooms 314 and 315) will be used for banquets; it can be divided into two separate spaces and has already been used for a golf tournament awards event on June 18. "It was very nice," says Kingston, "The space worked well."
The field house cost $8.5 million and began with a seed donation from twin brothers Mark and Will Adkins, members of Coastal Carolina University’s Class of 1989, who own a land development business, Adkins Land Group, based in Charlotte, N.C.
