Tim Wood | Muse Athletic Club

Muse Athletic Club

Advised by Barbera Materia and Spencer McNeil

Spring 2023

After observing a lack of public spaces in American cities, the studio brief called for a re-imagining of the institution and typology of the American Athletic Club.

Athletic activity is given different names based on its intended goal. Athletics for competition is sport, athletics for self improvement is exercise, and athletics for fun is recreation. These goals are complimentary, the athlete improves themself in anticipation of a better performance in competition, and recovers from an intense performance with recreation.

This project pairs athletics with the arts, with the two disciplines acting as inspiration for each other. The artist is given a constant reference of the human form, and the runner is given a live soundtrack of practicing musicians. The inhabitants from both disciplines simultaneously act as both performer and audience.

A top down map of the mouth of the Chicago river and the surrounding streets and buildings

In red, the site is located at 250 N Upper Columbus Drive, near the mouth of the Chicago River

In blue, a sampling of the typical age of a gym visitor throughout a typical day. In red, a sampling of one individual's gym habits across their lifetime.

A graph showing the time of day that people of different ages visit the gym

Two people looking at each other from across a break in the floor

Visual studies on changing field of view when adjacent floor plates are shifted vertically and horizontally.

Floor plates are split by a large atrium, allowing vertical shifts which create new adjacencies between disparate programs.

An exploded axonometric view of the building, broken apart into different segments

The mulit-story atrium meanders as it travels up through the building, generating unique conditions. An open air plaza at the upper Columbus datum overlooks a connection to the underground Chicago Pedway at the lower Columbus datum.