BWBR-Designed Sports Medicine Center Receives Healthcare Architecture Award

SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Measuring a modest 21,000 square feet, Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center located inside the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center is a physically small component in the world of healthcare offerings at the renowned Rochester, Minnesota campus.

Designed to elevate health and wellness to sit side-by-side world-class medical care, the center received big recognition when it received the 2016 FAB Award for Healthcare from the Northland Chapter of the International Interior Design Association. An interior design recognition program, the award recognizes projects that are fresh, artistic and brilliant. A three-judge panel that this year included architecture and interior design veterans from firms in Los Angeles, California and the Walt Disney Company juried the competition.

“The Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center really represents a different approach where athletes at all levels can find the best in patient care with the expertise to develop optimum performance,” said Pete Smith, AIA, president and CEO of BWBR and the principal on the project. “The challenge was to design a center that really speaks to that wide-ranging audience. It’s exciting when a panel of people not involved with the project says the design met the objectives.”

Opened in 2014, Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center was part of an expansion that opened the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center to patients and guests of Mayo. Mayo Clinic designed the program in partnership with EXOS, a world leader in human performance, to add performance and nutrition solutions to medical care for athletes of all ages and levels.

Extending that vision into injury prevention and rehabilitation, the design of the sports medicine center utilizes every square inch for a variety of athletics that includes a synthetic ice rink, an indoor basketball gymnasium, multipurpose artificial turf area, a performance training zone with cardio and weight equipment and assessment and procedural rooms. A nutrition bar sits in the mix with the athletic training zones to expand patient and client conversations beyond physical movement. The design immerses visitors into an environment of health and performance.

Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center is part of a multistory expansion to the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center which BWBR initially designed. Opened in 2007 to improve employee access to health and wellness programs, the expansion builds on the successes of that initial program to give more people access to Mayo Clinic’s research and expertise in health and medical care.

Alvin E. Benike served as general contractor on the project.