Venue: Lowry Center
Town: Ohio, US

The Lowry Center (formerly Kenyon Athletic Center) is an athletic center and student union serving the Kenyon College and Gambier village communities in Ohio. It was designed by architect Graham Gund and opened to the public on 25 January 2006. The facility cost approximately $70 million to build. The center was named after William E. Lowry Jr., who served on Kenyon’s Board of Trustees for more than 30 years. Lowry also captained the football, baseball, and basketball teams and presided the student body. Plans were begun in 2001 for an athletic center to replace the then-outdated Ernst Center and Wertheimer Fieldhouse that had previously served Kenyon College. The building was originally intended to be called the Fitness, Recreation, and Athletic facility (FRA). Designs were made in collaboration with coaches and other athletics personnel, such as swimming coach Jim Steen, who was consulted while making designs for the "state-of-the-art" natatorium. The KAC was built on the south end of Kenyon's campus, over the site of the former Wertheimer Fieldhouse, which was demolished to make way for the new facility. Construction began in 2003 and the facility was first opened to the public on 25 January 2006, two semesters after the originally projected date of completion (May 2005) and almost three years after the beginning of construction. The athletic center consists of a hangar-like structure approximately 540 feet (160 m) long and 300 feet (91 m) wide, or 265,000 square feet (24,600 m2) in total, with an arching roof supported by concrete columns in the center of the building and along the perimeter. A frequently noted feature of the building is the use of glass to create an "open" feel and provide natural lighting-most of the outer wall is made of baffled glass panels. There is also integratedness between the different areas of the facility: most interior walls do not reach the ceiling, making it possible to see and hear activities in other parts of the building. A key