Designed by Campus Architects Bakewell & Brown and built in 1931, Roble Gymnasium served as the women’s gymnasium. The the 95,000-SF complex housed the women’s athletic programs in a gymnasium, a formal dance studio, and numerous rehearsal studio spaces. Exterior features include integral colored plaster exterior finish, clay tile roofing, wood windows and doors, large operable steel windows at the major gathering spaces, decorative lighting, exposed timber arcade surrounding the central courtyard. The building is a significant historic resource, and all work conforms to the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for rehabilitation of historic structures.
As Roble Gym had not undergone any significant remodeling or restoration since its original construction, much attention was needed both to return the building to its original grandeur and provide necessary life safety improvements while providing modern infrastructure for the Theater and Performance Studies department. The building received complete upgrades to building accessibility, infrastructure, seismic, code compliance, aesthetics, and historic components rehabilitation. In addition, the building received a new flexible state-of-the-art theater, new dance performance and rehearsal studios, and a multi-media “Art Gym,” a flexible performance and workspace that makes artistic space available to non-arts majors.
