SMU broke ground on Friday, February 26th, on the Robson Lindley Aquatics Center and the Barr-McMillion Natatorium. The new Aquatics Center will replace the historic Perkins Natatorium that was torn down 2 years ago. The Perkins Natatorium was known for its basketball stadium seating found on three sides of the pool that created a rowdy atmosphere at any home SMU meet, especially the SMU classic, one of the fastest invitational meets in the country each year.
The Robson Lindley Aquatics Center was named for lead donors Emily and Bruce Robson ’74, Hannah and Joe Robson ’76 and Shelli and Steve Lindley ’74. The Barr-McMillion Natatorium gets its name from legendary Mustang coaches A.R. “Red” Barr and George “Coach Mac” Million.
As head coach at SMU from 1946-71, Coach Barr led the Mustangs to 17 Southwest Conference championships. As a student, McMillion was captain of the 1954 SMU team, winning seven Southwest Conference individual championships. He returned to SMU to become assistant coach for 14 years, then succeeded Coach Barr in 1971. McMillion led the Mustangs to eight consecutive conference championships, and a top 15 ranking each year he coached. Bryan Robbins coached 12 diving All-Americans under McMillion, and was the coach of the 1976 and 1980 U.S. Olympic teams.
Brinkley Sargent Wiginton Architects, the architect of record, held the architectural design of the Aquatics Center to the Collegiate Georgian Architectural style found on the rest of SMU campus. The exterior entrance is guarded with massive columns typically found in this style of architecture. The Aquatics Center will be the first ground up construction on this portion of SMU’s campus and will set the tone for future buildings east of highway 75. Counsilman-Hunsaker, as part of the architectural design team, lead the design effort for the championship level pool.
Possibly the greatest design aspect of the new SMU facility is its location, just blocks from SMU’s “Downtown,” a mixed-use area that features many restaurants and gathering spots. This proximity will make for great alumni and fan parties before and after home meets.
With this location, the new Aquatics Center looks to maintain the Perkins Natatorium tradition of a great meet atmosphere. This aspect was important to the coaching staff in design.
“We need to bring the spirit and tradition of Perkins Natatorium to a new facility with modern amenities and size,” — Steve Collins, the women’s head swim coach
The new facility will allow the swim team to bring the SMU Classic and other top level competitions back to campus. The Classic and all dual meets have been held offsite the last 2 years after the Perkins Natatorium closing.
“Bringing top-level competitions to SMU increases our visibility to recruits and showcases the achievements of our program,” says Eddie Sinnott, the men’s swimming head coach.
The dive team will take advantage of a full 10-meter tower with sparger system, two 1-meter springboard and two 3-meter springboard diving. SMU will be one of the first teams in the country to install a full dive video system that will automatically upload videos to a cloud management system, allowing athletes and coaches access to analyze dives with new coaching technology provided by SwimPro. Four strategically placed video cameras will give coaches and divers the ability to watch dives from all angles.
The swim team will take advantage of a 50-meter by 25-yard competition pool that can either be set up for eight 50-meter competition lanes or 22 cross course lanes. Full video systems will be installed for swim team use with similar features to diving.
Unique to this facility, the Aquatics Center will have three videoboards placed opposite of spectator seating. These videoboards will give the spectators full video and scores for both diving and swimming.
The facility is already scheduled to host the 2018 American Athletic Conference Championship, an event the SMU Women’s team won in 2015 and 2016. The Men’s team finished runner-ups both years of the conference.
Aquatic amenities for the facility include:
- Eight 50-meter competitive lanes
- Twenty-two 25-yard cross course lanes
- One 6’ wide moveable bulkhead
- Two 1-meter diving stands
- Two 3-meter diving stands
- 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10 meter Platforms
- Sparger diving system
- Integrated timing/scoring systems
- Integrated video coaching systems
Quick Facts
Design Team:
Architect, Interior Design: Brinkley Sargent Wiginton Architects
Aquatic Design: Counsilman-Hunsaker
Swimming Pool Facts:
- Total Building Area: 44,000 square feet
- Pool Surface Area: 12,775 square feet
- Pool Length: 170 feet 2.25 inches by 75 feet .75 inches (1 bulkhead)
- Competition Pool Water Capacity: 1,024,011 gallons Competition Pool Water Depth: 7’-0” at shallow end, 17’-0” at deep end Diving: 2 (two) 1-meter Springboards, 2 (two) 3-meter Springboards, full platform
About Us – Counsilman-Hunsaker
The history of Counsilman-Hunsaker is valuable in the context and the confidence it provides. Over the past 45 years, we’ve led the industry by completing more than 1,000 national and international aquatic projects of every size and complexity. In fact, many of the innovations that are now standard in the industry were conceived by our team.
Counsilman-Hunsaker believes that people of all ages are changed for the better through aquatic experiences and that our services reach beyond just solving design, or engineering or facility operational challenges. Our mission is to create aquatic experiences that transform people and communities, which supports our mantra of “Aquatics for Life”. And when we say “Aquatics for Life” we’re talking about the lives of humans we serve through every decision from conception, to the detail of daily operations. By focusing and serving the human experience, our full circle approach to everything we do allows us to be your guide every step of the way from facility audits, to program and design, thru facility creation and day to day operations.
Along the way, we’ve developed an international reputation for innovation and integrity, as people who are passionate about what they do and who do it exceptionally well. Today, our firm consists of an integrated team of designers, engineers and operational specialists with incomparable aquatic industry experience.
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