IU Cook Hall Basketball Facility

Hoosier basketball team nets a win with CarbonCast

Cook Hall, a new 67,000-square-foot basketball training and practice facility within iconic Assembly Hall arena uses aesthetically versatile CarbonCast High Performance Insulated Wall Panels to achieve a contemporary design that complements traditional Indiana limestone on surrounding buildings.

“Precast is a different material than what’s been used in this area of campus,” says Sara Pizarro Subtil, project architect for Populous, the architect of record. “The design freedom allowed us to create an aesthetically interesting image for an athletic complex. It fits with the context but is visually striking.”

Foremost, the color of the precast needed to be similar to the Indiana limestone on the adjacent Alumni Center. Exterior finishes were specified to match PCI color and texture sample #109 while interior wythes comprised a standard gray backer mix to keep costs low. In two exit stairways, panels received a steel trowel finish left unpainted.

The building is characterized by a succession of 10 structural concrete arches that span its volumes. Forming the base are CarbonCast High Performance Insulated Wall Panels that encapsulate a 2” layer of rigid XPS foam insulation for continuous insulation defined by the ASHRAE 90.1 energy code.

Panels utilize C-GRID® carbon fiber grid wythe ties for fully composite structural performance with relatively low thermal conductivity. The thermally efficient envelope delivers an average R-10.

“We were excited about CarbonCast because we were able to cast the panels with the insulation inside, which made the overall wall thickness minimal,” says Pizarro Subtil. “This allowed us to use more acoustical panels inside the gyms without having them stick out.”

High Concrete Group LLC, Springboro, Ohio plant, fabricated the CarbonCast High Performance Insulated Wall Panels.