quinnipiac university

health & wellness center

Hamden, Connecticut

“This beautiful building and adjacent amphitheater are far more than brick and mortar— They are representative of our vision to prepare our students for success. This facility contains more than weights or workout machines, it’s the key to a new worldview.”

— Tom Ellett, Quinnipiac University Chief Experience Officer

The new health and wellness center at Quinnipiac brings together clinical health, mental health, and recreation under a single structure in support of whole-body wellness. The building also creates a new healthy living program with classes in cooking, nutrition, and other lifestyle elements.

A mass timber building constructed with CLT, the building uses principles of biophilia that draw on the rich Connecticut landscape with heavy timber, wood paneling, local stone, and interior green walls. All of the materials for the project were locally sourced and minimally processed, including the spruce-pine-fir structure and granite base. The structure creates a new central courtyard for student gathering or quiet contemplation.

The building is designated to LEED Gold, using mass timber as a strategy to reduce overall embodied carbon. Since opening, weekly student counts have more than tripled from 3,500 visits at the old facility to 12,000 at the new building.