RECREATION/FITNESS CASE STUDY

Photos courtesy of MBMA

Project: Evans Fitness Club
Location: Evans, Georgia
Building Type: Recreation/Fitness
Architect: Studio 3 Design Group

The Project: Evans Fitness Club is a 50,000-square-foot, two-story health and exercise facility. The building includes racquetball courts, a rock climbing wall, a golf simulator, an indoor running track, a two-story spin room, a cardio room with cinema, batting cages, and individual Zen yoga, meditation, and aerobics studios. The club also provides a 4,000-square-foot daycare center, steam and sauna rooms, and two additional businesses: Smoothie King and Evans Medical Weight Loss.

The Design: Architectural services were provided by Studio 3 Design Group. Owner and General Manager Mike Montarbo envisioned a contemporary, industrial appearance for the fitness center. To achieve this, an MBS was recommended with a design scheme consisting of exposed columns, bar joists, wide-open interiors, and a warm color palette. The MBS is complemented by a second-story mezzanine that was designed independently, but its conventional steel tied seamlessly to the metal building.

“The metal building frame allowed us to maximize clear story height and long spans without sacrificing interior space with additional columns,” says John Martin, executive vice president with R.W. Allen, a general contracting firm in Augusta, Georgia. In addition to being highly durable, the structure’s framing system was designed to accommodate future expansion needs.

The Construction: The speed of construction was another important consideration on this project. Steel placement was optimized and manufactured in accordance with the project’s specific needs, which moved the construction process along more quickly in comparison to site-built construction.

“The building’s low price point was also a major advantage,” Montarbo adds. “It gave us the opportunity to incorporate additional elements as we went along, including a center deck.” He further notes, “Compared to conventional construction methods, the savings of going with a pre-engineered roofing system was essentially the equivalent of getting a roof at no additional cost.”

The Results: Once Evans Fitness Club turned operational, the end result more than met Montarbo’s expectations. “We were amazed and wowed by the way it turned out,” he says. “Since we have opened, we have had about 30 gym owners tour the facility. They have all been blown away by its design, particularly the interior!”

Regarding performance, he continues, “Everything is better than we anticipated, meeting or exceeding all of our performance standards. The energy efficiency alone is phenomenal. We are paying for energy at two-thirds the cost of a conventional 20,000-square-foot building that we also operate.”

Overall, Monatarbo sums up his experience as an owner this way: “It has really been a win-win situation, and we would highly recommend a metal building system to other owners and developers.” He is following his own advice, concluding, “It is our goal to build another fitness club with similar aesthetics later this year.”