Beloit College Powerhouse
Design Architect: Studio Gang
Associate Architect: Angus Young Associates
Landscape Architect: Applied Ecological Services
General Contractor: Corporate Contractors, Inc.
Civil Engineer: R.H. Batterman & Co.
LME Engineer: dbHMS
Recreation Design Consultant: Hastings+Chivetta Architects
Location: Beloit, WI
The Blackhawk Generating Station, a former coal-burning power plant on the banks of the Rock River, is converted here into a recreation and wellness center for Beloit College. The design preserves the plant's masonry shells, soaring volumes, and salvaged machinery, then threads new program through them. A competition pool occupies the oldest section, lounges and a cafe fill the former turbine hall, and a suspended running track loops through the three original segments of the structure before extending into a fourth - a new translucent field house. The river that once cooled its turbines now heats and cools the building, and the chimney is capped with a skylight.
