University of Oregon Hatfield Dowlin Complex

Project Title: University of Oregon Hatfield Dowlin Complex
Landscape Architect: PLACE
Category: General Design, Public Ownership
Location: Seattle, WA
Description: 
The Hatfield Dowlin Complex represents transformation of collegiate facilities into robust community assets fostering athletic excellence, sports science, high-caliber student physical performance, and civic tradition of game rivalry. Challenged to create an outdoor environment projecting the spirit of the game, a rigorous design process solicited contributions from a diverse stakeholder group including representatives from the university, local agencies, and the community. The iconic outdoor space features a 200-foot long water wall that complements the surrounding buildings and celebrates the campus community.  Welcoming visitors, private events, and large crowds, the central outdoor plaza unifies the new complex with adjacent sports centers and neighborhood community. The strong geometry of the courtyard benches, berms, and perimeter site conveys vector movement in contrast to the rectilinear geometry of the buildings. Dominant and imposing from the street, the perimeter walls constructed of black basalt form a literal and figurative ‘armor’ in spirit of training ‘gladiators.’ With a combination of roughhewn basalt walls and elegant water elements, the Hatfield-Dowlin landscape system-based design reveals a story of sophisticated transformation.

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