United Therapeutics Field House

Location: Research Triangle Park, NC
Completion Date: May 2012
Project Team: Frank Harmon and Tika Hicks

Problem Statement

A pharmaceutical company in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park needs a 5136-square-foot field house for an Olympic-size soccer field built for employees and their families. The structure needs to provide changing areas, showers, and restrooms for two teams of 10-12 people, as well as a Gathering Area with a fireplace. The structure also has to accommodate necessary support spaces—maintenance/storage room, mechanical/electrical rooms—and each changing room must have a janitor’s closet.

Our Design Response

The field house will create a dramatic gateway to the soccer field. The teams will pass through a stone “wall” via a central breezeway with changing areas on either side of the breezeway. Six-foot-deep roof overhangs will create “porches” on the entry (east) and field (west) sides of the building. The outdoor Gathering Area will be located at the southern end of the building.

Regionally appropriate construction materials will include building stone, cypress siding, cypress tongue-in-groove ceilings and soffits, and ground concrete and bluestone floors. A standing-seam metal roof will reflect heat away from the interior.