Gerald Ratner Athletics Center
Encyclopedia
The Gerald Ratner Athletics Center is a $51 million state-of-the-art athletics facility within the University of Chicago
campus in the Hyde Park
community area
on the South Side
of Chicago
, Illinois in the United States. The building was named after University of Chicago alumnus, Gerald Ratner. The architect of this suspension structure that is supported by masts, cable
s and counterweight
s was César Pelli
, who is best known as the architect of the Petronas Towers.
The Ratner Athletics Center was approved for use in September 2003. The facility includes, among other things: a competition gymnasium
, a multilevel fitness facility, an Olympic-sized swimming pool
, a multipurpose dance studio
, meeting room space, and athletic department offices. It serves as home to several of the university's athletic teams and has hosted numerous National Collegiate Athletic Association
Division III regional and University Athletic Association
conference championship events.
Located at the southwest corner of Ellis Avenue and 55th Street, the Ratner Center has an award-winning design that substitutes a complex external mast and counterweight
system for interior support devices to allow for large open-space areas inside the building. Cesar Pelli & Associates Inc. was credited as the design architect and OWP/P was the architect of record.
weekend on October 11. The building, which represented a collaboration between Cesar Pelli & Associates and Chicago's OWP/P, was the first new athletic facility on the University of Chicago campus in 68 years. It was a part of a $500 million University-wide capital improvement plan that occurred between 1999 and 2005. Part of the plan included the Pelli-designed parking structure across the street from the Athletics Center. The parking structure is named the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center Parking Structure. The athletic center is known for its innovative asymmetrically supported cable-stayed structural system and S-shaped roofs. It is composed of a masted building to the north containing the Myers-McLoraine Swimming Pool, a masted building to the south containing the gymnasia, and a central building containing the Bernard DelGiorno fitness center.
Ratner, Ph.B.
,’35, J.D.
,’37, contributed $15 million toward the $51 million cost. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate and played for the baseball
team during the time that the University participated in the Big Ten Conference
. After graduating with a law degree, Order of the Coif
, he eventually founded his own law firm Gould & Ratner in 1949. Helen Myers McLoraine, also an alumnus from the 1930s, contributed in excess of $5 million to fund the swimming pool. Bernard DelGiorno — a gymnast with many degrees from the university: AB’54, AB’55, MBA’55 — has made numerous donations including a $5 million one in 2006 to fund athletic facilities as well as other infrastructure on campus. DelGiorno worked in industrial relations and personnel at a steel plant before becoming a stockbroker for Paine Webber
, which became a part of UBS Financial Services.
which allows for simultaneous activities. It also has a pair of one-meter diving boards. The pool depth ranges from 4 to 13.5 ft (1.2 to 4.1 m) in the shallow end and the diving well, respectively. The 24700 square feet (2,295 m²) competition natatorium
features seating for 350 spectators.
The building also includes the Bernard DelGiorno fitness center. The DelGiorno Fitness Center facility occupies two levels of the Ratner center plus the rotunda area. In addition to a general fitness center, it includes a multipurpose dance studio; classroom and meeting room space; permanent and day lockers and locker rooms; the University of Chicago Athletics Hall of Fame; and the athletic department offices.
The building also features a competition gym and auxiliary gym, both of which are available to recreational users. The competition gym, which is the southernmost building, accommodates practice and game site for varsity basketball, volleyball, and wrestling, but is convertible into two recreational courts. The auxiliary gym is multipurpose and can accommodate indoor soccer, as well as basketball, volleyball, and badminton.
The center is available to University and hospital faculty, staff, alumni, and retirees as well as their spouses and children on a paid membership basis and registered students for free. , the University of Chicago is one of the few remaining universities in the United states to have a swimming requirement for its undergraduate degree program. Aside from the military service academies and a few of the Ivy League
schools only a half dozen Universities had such a requirement as of 2006. The swimming pool is the location of the administration of the two-lap requirement. The facilities memberships are available to students as well as University and hospital faculty, staff, alumni and retirees, as well as spouses and children. Registered students' memberships are free.
The building is complemented at the University by its predecessors the Henry Crown Field House and the modern incarnation of Stagg Field
, which will continue to augment the athletic facilities needs of the campus patrons. Features of the indoor Henry Crown Field House include a 200-meter indoor running track; racquetball
, handball
and squash
courts; multipurpose courts; a multipurpose room; and cardiovascular and weight training equipment. The Stagg Field outdoor complex includes a 400-meter track, eight tennis courts, and fields for baseball
, softball
, American football
and soccer.
The German-import masts are united by 120 high-strength steel cable
s that total approximately 6500 feet (1,981 m) in length. They are inclined at a 10 degree
angle from vertical. Each tapered composite mast that supports the flattened S-shaped roof girders is supported by 15 splaying cables; 9 fore-stay cables and 6 backstay cables. During construction, the masts were filled with 10000 pound per square inches (68,947,572.9 Pa) cast-in-place concrete using innovative pumping techniques.
Concrete counterweights totaling 2500 cubic yards (1,911 m³) — with some as large as 50 by — counteract the weight of the roof from below the ground. The masts and counterweights are likened as external form-giving elements to flying buttress
es in gothic architecture
, which predominates the campus' architecture. The building is said to interpret gothic architecture through structural expressionism
. The exterior support design made the interior space more receptive to open natural lighting and more accommodating for free movement.
The roof design incorporated multi-level splayed cables so that the structural roof members could form a 33 inches (83.8 cm) deep uniformly curved roof plane.
The roof members are curved and shallow. They support 7 2 inches (5.1 cm) thick 25 feet (7.6 m) metal roof deck spans between the roof girders. The W33x169 girders are cold bent with reverse curves to multiple radii. The curved roof planes are suspended from German “full-lock” steel cables and include three outer layers of interlocking Z-shaped wires designed to minimize water infiltration and corrosion.
The engineering of the masts was complicated because stability was so important to the overall design success of the suspension structure. Mast displacements could significantly alter cable length and tension and redistribute loads through the superstructure contrary to design. The key to successful design was control of the foundation settlement. The sites natural underlying subsurface conditions were stiff silty clay
below a medium dense sand layer, which was determined to be too accommodating to settlement to host the structure. Ground improvement, consisting of triple-fluid jet grouting, was performed to reduce the compressibility of the silty clay, stiffen the sand deposit and provide a desirable shallow foundation system. This site marked the first time that these geotechnical ground improvement techniques were employed.
, the American Institute of Steel Construction
, and the Consulting Engineers Council of Illinois. The building earned a Merit Award in the category of new buildings in the $30 million and over category in the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations
2004 Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards program. The building earned the 2003 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement of the Year award by the American Society of Civil Engineers
and the 2004 Project of the Year Overall by Midwest Construction News.
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
campus in the Hyde Park
Hyde Park, Chicago
Hyde Park, located on the South Side of the City of Chicago, in Cook County, Illinois, United States and seven miles south of the Chicago Loop, is a Chicago neighborhood and one of 77 Chicago community areas. It is home to the University of Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center, the Museum of Science...
community area
Community areas of Chicago
Community areas in Chicago refers to the work of the Social Science Research Committee at University of Chicago which has unofficially divided the City of Chicago into 77 community areas. These areas are well-defined and static...
on the South Side
South Side (Chicago)
The South Side is a major part of the City of Chicago, which is located in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Much of it has evolved from the city's incorporation of independent townships, such as Hyde Park Township which voted along with several other townships to be annexed in the June 29,...
of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois in the United States. The building was named after University of Chicago alumnus, Gerald Ratner. The architect of this suspension structure that is supported by masts, cable
Cable
A cable is two or more wires running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics cables, otherwise known as wire ropes, are used for lifting, hauling and towing or conveying force through tension. In electrical engineering cables are used to carry...
s and counterweight
Counterweight
A counterweight is an equivalent counterbalancing weight that balances a load.-Uses:A counterweight is often used in traction lifts , cranes and funfair rides...
s was César Pelli
César Pelli
César Pelli is an Argentine architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects listed Pelli among the ten most influential living American architects...
, who is best known as the architect of the Petronas Towers.
The Ratner Athletics Center was approved for use in September 2003. The facility includes, among other things: a competition gymnasium
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
, a multilevel fitness facility, an Olympic-sized swimming pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
, a multipurpose dance studio
Dance studio
A dance studio is a space in which dancers learn or rehearse. The term is typically used to describe a space that has either been built or equipped for the purpose....
, meeting room space, and athletic department offices. It serves as home to several of the university's athletic teams and has hosted numerous National Collegiate Athletic Association
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
Division III regional and University Athletic Association
University Athletic Association
The University Athletic Association is an American athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III. Member teams are located in Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Ohio, and New York...
conference championship events.
Located at the southwest corner of Ellis Avenue and 55th Street, the Ratner Center has an award-winning design that substitutes a complex external mast and counterweight
Counterweight
A counterweight is an equivalent counterbalancing weight that balances a load.-Uses:A counterweight is often used in traction lifts , cranes and funfair rides...
system for interior support devices to allow for large open-space areas inside the building. Cesar Pelli & Associates Inc. was credited as the design architect and OWP/P was the architect of record.
History
A ceremonial groundbreaking was held for the Ratner Center on October 28, 2000. The Ratner Center opened to the public on September 29, 2003, although it was not officially dedicated until homecomingHomecoming
Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni of a school. It most commonly refers to a tradition in many universities, colleges and high schools in North America...
weekend on October 11. The building, which represented a collaboration between Cesar Pelli & Associates and Chicago's OWP/P, was the first new athletic facility on the University of Chicago campus in 68 years. It was a part of a $500 million University-wide capital improvement plan that occurred between 1999 and 2005. Part of the plan included the Pelli-designed parking structure across the street from the Athletics Center. The parking structure is named the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center Parking Structure. The athletic center is known for its innovative asymmetrically supported cable-stayed structural system and S-shaped roofs. It is composed of a masted building to the north containing the Myers-McLoraine Swimming Pool, a masted building to the south containing the gymnasia, and a central building containing the Bernard DelGiorno fitness center.
Ratner, Ph.B.
Bachelor of Philosophy
Bachelor of Philosophy is the title of an academic degree. The degree usually involves considerable research, either through a thesis or supervised research projects...
,’35, J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
,’37, contributed $15 million toward the $51 million cost. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate and played for the baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team during the time that the University participated in the Big Ten Conference
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
. After graduating with a law degree, Order of the Coif
Order of the Coif
The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. A student at an American law school who earns a Juris Doctor degree and graduates in the top 10 percent of his or her class is eligible for membership if the student's law school has a chapter of the...
, he eventually founded his own law firm Gould & Ratner in 1949. Helen Myers McLoraine, also an alumnus from the 1930s, contributed in excess of $5 million to fund the swimming pool. Bernard DelGiorno — a gymnast with many degrees from the university: AB’54, AB’55, MBA’55 — has made numerous donations including a $5 million one in 2006 to fund athletic facilities as well as other infrastructure on campus. DelGiorno worked in industrial relations and personnel at a steel plant before becoming a stockbroker for Paine Webber
Paine Webber
Paine Webber and Company was an American stock brokerage and asset management firm that was acquired by the Swiss bank UBS AG in 2000. The company was founded in 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts, by William Alfred Paine and Wallace G. Webber. Operating with two employees, they leased premises at 48...
, which became a part of UBS Financial Services.
Details
The building features the 50 metres (54.7 yd) x 25 yards (22.9 m) Myers-McLoraine Swimming Pool, which can be configured with up to 20 lanes in the 25-yard dimension and nine lanes in the 50-meter dimension. The pool's configuration is flexible with a moveable bulkheadBulkhead (partition)
A bulkhead is an upright wall within the hull of a ship or within the fuselage of an airplane. Other kinds of partition elements within a ship are decks and deckheads.-Etymology:...
which allows for simultaneous activities. It also has a pair of one-meter diving boards. The pool depth ranges from 4 to 13.5 ft (1.2 to 4.1 m) in the shallow end and the diving well, respectively. The 24700 square feet (2,295 m²) competition natatorium
Natatorium
A natatorium is a term given for a building containing a swimming pool. In Latin, a cella natatoria was a swimming pool in its own building, although it is sometimes also used to refer to any indoor pool even if not housed in a dedicated building...
features seating for 350 spectators.
The building also includes the Bernard DelGiorno fitness center. The DelGiorno Fitness Center facility occupies two levels of the Ratner center plus the rotunda area. In addition to a general fitness center, it includes a multipurpose dance studio; classroom and meeting room space; permanent and day lockers and locker rooms; the University of Chicago Athletics Hall of Fame; and the athletic department offices.
The building also features a competition gym and auxiliary gym, both of which are available to recreational users. The competition gym, which is the southernmost building, accommodates practice and game site for varsity basketball, volleyball, and wrestling, but is convertible into two recreational courts. The auxiliary gym is multipurpose and can accommodate indoor soccer, as well as basketball, volleyball, and badminton.
Use
The Ratner Center also serves as the home of the University of Chicago basketball, volleyball, and wrestling teams. The 1,658-seat competition gymnasium has played host to the 2004, 2007 and 2010 University Athletic Association Wrestling Championships and the 2006 NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Wrestling Championship. The building also hosted the 2009 University Athletic Association Women's Volleyball Championship. The Myers-McLoraine Swimming Pool was the site of the 2005 University Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Championship. It also hosted swimming at the 2006 Gay Games.The center is available to University and hospital faculty, staff, alumni, and retirees as well as their spouses and children on a paid membership basis and registered students for free. , the University of Chicago is one of the few remaining universities in the United states to have a swimming requirement for its undergraduate degree program. Aside from the military service academies and a few of the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
schools only a half dozen Universities had such a requirement as of 2006. The swimming pool is the location of the administration of the two-lap requirement. The facilities memberships are available to students as well as University and hospital faculty, staff, alumni and retirees, as well as spouses and children. Registered students' memberships are free.
The building is complemented at the University by its predecessors the Henry Crown Field House and the modern incarnation of Stagg Field
Stagg Field
Amos Alonzo Stagg Field is the name of two different football fields for the University of Chicago. The earliest Stagg Field is probably best remembered for its role in a landmark scientific achievement by Enrico Fermi during the Manhattan Project. The site of the first nuclear reaction received...
, which will continue to augment the athletic facilities needs of the campus patrons. Features of the indoor Henry Crown Field House include a 200-meter indoor running track; racquetball
Racquetball
For other sports often called "paddleball", see Paddleball .Racquetball is a racquet sport played with a hollow rubber ball in an indoor or outdoor court...
, handball
American handball
American handball is a sport in which players hit a small rubber ball against a wall using their hands.- History :...
and squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
courts; multipurpose courts; a multipurpose room; and cardiovascular and weight training equipment. The Stagg Field outdoor complex includes a 400-meter track, eight tennis courts, and fields for baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
, American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
and soccer.
Design
The construction employed 2000 ST (1,814 t; 1,786 LT) of steel. The 2000000 lbs roof of the gym is supported by a pair of 125 feet (38.1 m) steel masts. The pool's roof is supported by three masts. Each mast is composed of three 18 inches (46 cm) diameter steel hollow structural sections (HSS) filled with high-strength concrete that are arranged in a tapered tied-column configuration.The German-import masts are united by 120 high-strength steel cable
Cable
A cable is two or more wires running side by side and bonded, twisted or braided together to form a single assembly. In mechanics cables, otherwise known as wire ropes, are used for lifting, hauling and towing or conveying force through tension. In electrical engineering cables are used to carry...
s that total approximately 6500 feet (1,981 m) in length. They are inclined at a 10 degree
Degree (angle)
A degree , usually denoted by ° , is a measurement of plane angle, representing 1⁄360 of a full rotation; one degree is equivalent to π/180 radians...
angle from vertical. Each tapered composite mast that supports the flattened S-shaped roof girders is supported by 15 splaying cables; 9 fore-stay cables and 6 backstay cables. During construction, the masts were filled with 10000 pound per square inches (68,947,572.9 Pa) cast-in-place concrete using innovative pumping techniques.
Concrete counterweights totaling 2500 cubic yards (1,911 m³) — with some as large as 50 by — counteract the weight of the roof from below the ground. The masts and counterweights are likened as external form-giving elements to flying buttress
Flying buttress
A flying buttress is a specific form of buttressing most strongly associated with Gothic church architecture. The purpose of any buttress is to resist the lateral forces pushing a wall outwards by redirecting them to the ground...
es in gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
, which predominates the campus' architecture. The building is said to interpret gothic architecture through structural expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
. The exterior support design made the interior space more receptive to open natural lighting and more accommodating for free movement.
The roof design incorporated multi-level splayed cables so that the structural roof members could form a 33 inches (83.8 cm) deep uniformly curved roof plane.
The roof members are curved and shallow. They support 7 2 inches (5.1 cm) thick 25 feet (7.6 m) metal roof deck spans between the roof girders. The W33x169 girders are cold bent with reverse curves to multiple radii. The curved roof planes are suspended from German “full-lock” steel cables and include three outer layers of interlocking Z-shaped wires designed to minimize water infiltration and corrosion.
The engineering of the masts was complicated because stability was so important to the overall design success of the suspension structure. Mast displacements could significantly alter cable length and tension and redistribute loads through the superstructure contrary to design. The key to successful design was control of the foundation settlement. The sites natural underlying subsurface conditions were stiff silty clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
below a medium dense sand layer, which was determined to be too accommodating to settlement to host the structure. Ground improvement, consisting of triple-fluid jet grouting, was performed to reduce the compressibility of the silty clay, stiffen the sand deposit and provide a desirable shallow foundation system. This site marked the first time that these geotechnical ground improvement techniques were employed.
Reception
The facility's engineering and design has earned it awards from the American Council of Engineering CompaniesAmerican Council of Engineering Companies
The American Council of Engineering Companies is a professional engineering organization, which together with the National Society of Professional Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers represent the majority of US engineers and engineering firms.ACEC’s origins begin in 1909 with...
, the American Institute of Steel Construction
American Institute of Steel Construction
The American Institute of Steel Construction, often abbreviated AISC, is a not-for-profit technical institute and trade association for the use of structural steel in the construction industry of the United States. It is headquartered in Chicago, IL. Their mission is to make structural steel the...
, and the Consulting Engineers Council of Illinois. The building earned a Merit Award in the category of new buildings in the $30 million and over category in the National Council of Structural Engineers Associations
National Council of Structural Engineers Associations
The National Council of Structural Engineers Associations is a professional society in the United States, with subchapters in 45 states and the District of Columbia. NCSEA was established in 1993, in Chicago...
2004 Excellence in Structural Engineering Awards program. The building earned the 2003 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement of the Year award by the American Society of Civil Engineers
American Society of Civil Engineers
The American Society of Civil Engineers is a professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. It is the oldest national engineering society in the United States. ASCE's vision is to have engineers positioned as global leaders who strive toward...
and the 2004 Project of the Year Overall by Midwest Construction News.