Our current spaces do not support the wide range of uses that our students and coaches require to achieve their goals as individuals and as teams.
New physical spaces are essential to help us continue to attract the strongest students and offer all of them high-quality athletic, recreation and physical education experiences.
Our current facilities simply weren’t built for a modern campus; more than 50% of our athletics footprint dates back to before 1975—prior to co-education and the major expansion of women’s sports.
Our recent comprehensive program study confirmed that the majority of our athletic and recreation spaces rank in the bottom tier among our NESCAC peers in terms of overall condition and functionality. Several facilities were identified in need of urgent attention and prioritized for major renewal or replacement.
It would be cost-prohibitive to make all the code, life safety, plumbing, ventilation and accessibility upgrades required—and that’s before taking into consideration what’s needed so that current facilities meet the athletics and recreation program needs.
Renovating existing buildings would take them off-line for significant chunks of time, preventing access to users and interrupting practice and competition schedules.
These facilities are being designed to benefit all students, along with faculty, staff and community members, while acknowledging the different needs of different users.
The facilities will be designed to meet the specific needs of our varsity and club athletes and the spaces they require for practice, training and competition, along with the needs of recreational and physical education users.
The ultimate goal is to provide everyone—from varsity athletes and club competitors to fitness enthusiasts and students taking PE courses to employees—welcoming spaces to care for body, mind, and spirit.
We aim to create a community hub where competitors, spectators, recreational and fitness users, and students simply looking for a beautiful, vibrant place to spend time together between classes will all want to congregate.
Both firms have extensive experience designing athletics facilities and student spaces at NESCAC institutions, major universities and boarding schools.
We intend to design and build in phases so that no teams lose access to their current facilities and no competition schedules are interrupted during construction.
Only after new facilities are built would old facilities be removed.
The program study prioritized the facilities envisioned for the new ARC based on current condition and program needs, but it offered recommendations for other facilities.
In some cases, those projects could be prioritized in a future major phase of construction.
In other cases, projects could be pursued as opportunity projects with major philanthropy.
For example, the Board of Trustees voted in June 2026 to proceed with an initial concept and schematic design for new baseball and softball fields, to be funded entirely from philanthropic gifts.
Lasell was identified as historically and architecturally important and will be preserved.
Its systems (electrical, HVAC, plumbing) are in need of significant attention.
Though the exact nature of its future uses hasn’t yet been determined, it is anticipated that it will remain a core space for athletics and recreation.
The renovation of Lasell Gym is expected to follow the construction of the ARC.
A portion of a renovated Lasell is intended to provide offices and meeting space for all athletics coaches and staff, who are currently spread out among several buildings.
