The Roberts Pavilion

Claremont McKenna College’s new 144,000 SF Roberts Pavilion dramatically redefines what a college athletics venue can be; it is an iconic social hub that simultaneously demarks a vibrant new campus gateway. Roberts Pavilion gently bends, warps, rises, and dips. The experience of the building is one of lightness and light. Lightness because the building’s mass hovers above the ground plane on a ring of light produced by twelve-foot high sheets of glass on all sides. Light because the building’s spaces form a study in how to optimize daylighting and connect to the outside world with views clear through and from almost any vantage point. The dynamic geometry makes Roberts Pavilion a thrilling object of curiosity, a living object full of surprises and inviting, flexible spaces of repose as well as spontaneity. While designed primarily for athletics and special events, the Claremont community has appropriated it for study, meetings, and social gatherings. Roberts Pavilion has become the new center of campus life. Roberts Pavilion’s dynamic form expresses athleticism as well as the energy of activity happening within. Red and yellow school color accents dance around the building’s terra cotta skin. Adjacent to the main entrance, a welcoming terraced landscape stair brings people up to the second level. Inside the expansive lobby, a double-height wall above the dramatic sculptural interior stair, taking cues from Jasper John’s white-on-white paintings, features letters in relief that spell out the name of the school as well as its three core values: Courage. Creativity. Empathy.