Consistent with UMBC’s Master Plan, this project expands the Athletic Precinct of the campus with the design of this 5,000-seat multipurpose facility. Designed to accommodate NCAA D1 athletics, the facility will specifically house the basketball and volleyball programs, but will also be an important new venue for commencements, concerts, and other community and campus events.
Project planning required an analysis of existing conditions and included study of utility, roadway, and parking capacity. The Facility Plan addressed an early approach to infrastructure improvements, concept grading, utility upgrades, service road improvements, and stormwater management.
MRA, with the design team, further developed that preliminary concept approach to include a landscape plan that links the Arena to the wider campus, considers the gateway opportunity of the building and site, provides accessible circulation within the site (which has a 35’ overall grade change), allows for tented events in the entrance plaza, and preserves/ incorporates mature specimen trees on the site. Curving forms of walkways, site walls, and paving patterns recall the movement patterns of people through the site, the organic nature of the existing landscape, and the character of the adjacent woodland stream.
