Cerritos College recently celebrated the opening of its new Athletic Team Room and Health Center Buildings, marking the completion of the school’s Health and Wellness Complex (HWC), with a special ribbon-cutting ceremony. In late 2018, the school celebrated the opening of the HWC’s Conference Center and Kinesiology Buildings, this latest celebration marks the completion of the campus athletic precinct.
Home of the Falcons, Cerritos College in Norwalk, California has a long and proud athletics history. Employing the metaphor of the “falcon’s nest”, the 76,000 SF complex was designed to holistically support the student athlete’s mind, body, and spirit. Functioning as the home base for all athletic and physical education activities, the complex provides a much-needed expansion of training, counseling, classroom, and support spaces tailored to the specialized needs of the robust physical education and athletics programs. The site is bounded by the existing Student Center to the west and gymnasium to the north. The other two edges of the nest are completed through the placement of the Health Center and Athletic Team Room Buildings along the east and the Dance/Fitness building to the south. Working in unison, these buildings create a porous bounding edge to the complex and cradle the two-story Kinesiology and Conference Center Building at its center, representing the “egg in the nest”. A series of differently scaled outdoor courts are created throughout the “nest” and extend the program into the landscape. Each of these spaces is an active part of the complex and exhibits the kinesthetic nature of the complex’s programs.
The HWC provides the Cerritos Falcons with a full athletic home that supports the long-term success of each of its student-athletes. Cerritos College’s Associate Dean of Student Health and Wellness Hillary Mennella said that the new buildings are “modern, bright, and gorgeous. The bounty of natural light gives everybody a boost of energy throughout the day.” The opening of the building, she said, “was like unwrapping a very special gift.”
HMC is engaged in an ongoing investigative research effort to better understand the long-term effects of COVID-19 and develop solutions for a safe return to higher education schools. The firm is committed to sharing all of its research findings with the industry in a series of white papers that focus on five main areas of Technology, Adaptability and Flexibility, Regulatory/Budgetary/Institutional Impacts, Space Needs/Reduction and Restructuring, and Impact to Wellness/Mental Health as they relate to the higher education markets.
