Kress Events Center receives architecture and design award

GREEN BAY — The Kress Events Center on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus has been selected to receive an Innovation in Architecture and Design Award from Recreation Management magazine.

The magazine, a fitness, sports and recreation information trade publication for sports and fitness facility managers, will feature the Kress Events Center in its June/July issue. The awards “applaud outstanding new and renovated facilities that are setting higher standards for recreation design across the country.”

The $33 million Kress Events Center was designed by the architectural companies Moody Nolan and Venture Architects/Kahler Slater. It was a renovation and 175,000-square-foot addition to the existing Phoenix Sports Center.

The Kress Events Center opened in 2007 and has since changed the landscape of campus athletics activities with a 4,000-seat arena for women’s basketball games and volleyball matches, a state-of-the-art fitness facility for the campus community and the public, renovated and expanded office spaces, new practice facilities, an indoor turf gym and more.

“The Kress Events Center has certainly become a point of pride on our campus,” Athletics Director Ken Bothof said. “The positive impact it has had for our athletic program and our student-athletes is obvious to everyone who sees it. The positive impact it has had on the recreational and intramural benefits of our students can be seen in the large increase in the numbers of users and participants. It has been extremely well received by the community as well.

“The Kress Events Center was supported by students, athletics and community and all are benefiting a great deal.”
Moody Nolan submitted a nomination for the award, which described the Kress Events Center, its architectural features, the University’s athletics and recreation programs and funding sources.

“In summary, the Kress Events Center addition/renovation is a vibrant, dynamic and expansive facility for students and athletes alike,” the nomination submission says. “The building acts as a beacon for the university for miles around as the glow from the tall event center lights up the night sky.”

For more about the awards, visit the Recreation Management magazine website at: http://www.recmanagement.com/.

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