Ratner Athletics Center
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 Ratner Athletics Center
Ratner Athletics Center
Ratner Athletics Center
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| Full name | Gerald Ratner Athletics Center |
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| Location | 5530 South Ellis Avenue Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois 60637 |
| Coordinates | 41°47′38.87″N 87°36′6.48″W / 41.7941306°N 87.6018000°W |
| Owner | University of Chicago |
| Field size | 150,000 square feet (14,000 m2) |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | October 28, 2000 (ceremonial groundbreaking) |
| Opened | September 29, 2003 (opened) October 11, 2003 (dedicated) |
| Architect | Cesar Pelli |
| Structural engineer | OWP/P Structures |
| General contractor | Walsh Construction Company, Inc., |
| Tenants | |
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University of Chicago men's basketball University of Chicago women's basketball University of Chicago men's volleyball University of Chicago women's volleyball University of Chicago wrestling University of Chicago men's swimming & diving University of Chicago women's swimming & diving University of Chicago Athletics Department |
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The Gerald Ratner Athletics Center is a $51 million athletics facility within the University of Chicago campus in the Hyde Park community area on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. The building was named after University of Chicago alumnus, Gerald Ratner. The architect of this suspension structure that is supported by , cables and counterweights was César Pelli, who is best known as the architect of the Petronas Towers.
The Ratner Athletics Center was approved for use in September 2003. The facility includes, among other things: a competition gymnasium, a multilevel fitness facility, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a multipurpose dance studio, meeting room space, and athletic department offices. It serves as home to several of the university's athletic teams and has hosted numerous National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III regional and University Athletic Association conference championship events.
Located at the southwest corner of Ellis Avenue and 55th Street, the Ratner Center has an award-winning design that substitutes a complex external mast and counterweight system for interior support devices to allow for large open-space areas inside the building. Cesar Pelli & Associates Inc. was credited as the design architect and OWP/P was the architect of record.
A ceremonial groundbreaking was held for the Ratner Center on October 28, 2000. The Ratner Center opened to the public on September 29, 2003, although it was not officially dedicated until homecoming weekend on October 11. The building, which represented a collaboration between Cesar Pelli & Associates and Chicago's OWP/P, was the first new athletic facility on the University of Chicago campus in 68 years. It was a part of a $500 million University-wide capital improvement plan that occurred between 1999 and 2005. Part of the plan included the Pelli-designed parking structure across the street from the Athletics Center. The parking structure is named the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center Parking Structure. The athletic center is known for its innovative asymmetrically supported cable-stayed structural system and S-shaped roofs. It is composed of a masted building to the north containing the Myers-McLoraine Swimming Pool, a masted building to the south containing the gymnasia, and a central building containing the Bernard DelGiorno fitness center.
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