Parker Performance Institute in Frisco, Texas, is billed as a first-of-its-kind sports and rehabilitation clinic where students, specialized clinicians, and chiropractic professionals apply neuroscience to physical rehabilitation. Offering high-tech, cutting-edge treatment, the facility combines the vibrant atmosphere of a training gym with the healing qualities of a spa.
The building is organized into two zones, each with a distinct character. The Open Performance Zone is a high-energy space embodying athleticism and vigor with dark metal accents, turf, digital displays, and a sense of expansiveness despite a relatively small, elongated space. Designers used mirrors, exposed structural components, and natural light to animate this half of the interior. This space emphasizes cutting-edge technology.
The interior is composed of healing and massage rooms, with bright tones and indirect, color-changing circadian lighting that is customizable for patients, offering a soothing retreat. The facility provides intuitive navigation with a continuous light running above the core circulation path that is defined by a detailed feature wall.
These features mark the transition from the communal, highly visible training area to the zone of private care. A pattern of wood slats along the wall—also incorporating metal mesh and steel trim—creates a warm material rhythm that guides patients through the full length of the space. Branching off the main path are clean, bright pods of exam rooms with neurological and visual equipment used for light therapy, vertigo treatment, and specialized treatments for PTSD patients.
Parker Performance uses advanced tools not commonly available in clinics, from dynamic posturography and virtual reality to 3D diagnostics. The design balances this tech-forward environment with human touches, not losing sight of the emotional side of performance and recovery.
Light is strategically layered throughout to ground the experience as you walk through the building. Tall windows pull sun into the open athletic zone and translucent materials transmit natural light deeper into the space offering privacy without losing the glow of daylight.
On the team:
Owner and/or developer: Parker University
Design architect: Perkins&Will
Architect of record: Perkins&Will
MEP engineer: Purdy-McGuire
General contractor/construction manager: Skiles Group
Related Stories
| Mar 11, 2011
Community sports center in Nashville features NCAA-grade training facility
A multisport community facility in Nashville featuring a training facility that will meet NCAA Division I standards is being constructed by St. Louis-based Clayco and Chicago-based Pinnacle.
| Mar 11, 2011
Slam dunk for the University of Nebraska’s basketball arena
The University of Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball programs will have a new home beginning in 2013. Designed by the DLR Group, the $344 million West Haymarket Civic Arena in Lincoln, Neb., will have 16,000 seats, suites, club amenities, loge, dedicated locker rooms, training rooms, and support space for game operations.
| Feb 23, 2011
London 2012: What Olympic Park looks like today
London 2012 released a series of aerial images that show progress at Olympic Park, including a completed roof on the stadium (where seats are already installed), tile work at the aquatic centre, and structural work complete on more than a quarter of residential projects at Olympic Village.
| Jan 21, 2011
Sustainable history center exhibits Fort Ticonderoga’s storied past
Fort Ticonderoga, in Ticonderoga, N.Y., along Lake Champlain, dates to 1755 and was the site of battles in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The new $20.8 million, 15,000-sf Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center pays homage to the French magasin du Roi (the King’s warehouse) at the fort.
| Jan 20, 2011
Houston Dynamo soccer team plans new venue
Construction is scheduled to begin this month on a new 22,000-seat Major League Soccer stadium for the Houston Dynamo. The $60 million project is expected to be ready for the 2012 MLS season.
| Jan 20, 2011
Construction begins on second St. Louis community center
O’Fallon Park Recreation Complex in St. Louis, designed by local architecture/engineering firm KAI Design & Build, will feature an indoor aquatic park with interactive water play features, a lazy river, water slides, laps lanes, and an outdoor spray and multiuse pool.
| Nov 16, 2010
Brazil Olympics spurring green construction
Brazil's green building industry will expand in the coming years, spurred by construction of low-impact venues being built for the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee requires arenas built for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro meet international standards for low-carbon emissions and energy efficiency. This has boosted local interest in developing real estate with lower environmental impact than existing buildings. The timing couldn’t be better: the Brazilian government is just beginning its long-term infrastructure expansion program.
| Nov 3, 2010
Park’s green education center a lesson in sustainability
The new Cantigny Outdoor Education Center, located within the 500-acre Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Ill., earned LEED Silver. Designed by DLA Architects, the 3,100-sf multipurpose center will serve patrons of the park’s golf courses, museums, and display garden, one of the largest such gardens in the Midwest.