MIDDLEBURY — A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on March 2 to celebrate opening of the new Middlebury Recreation Center at 151 Creek Road. Bread Loaf Corp. provided integrated project management services for the design and construction of the building.
The 13,880-square-foot Middlebury Recreation Center is organized around a large, flexible main lobby with a regulation-sized multi-sport gymnasium flanking one side, and the support spaces — offices, multi-purpose room and quiet studio — on the other. There are also four team rooms to serve the playing fields as well as sports using the gymnasium. The building will provide much-needed restroom amenities for the adjoining recreation park as well as shelter from storms.
Interior and exterior colors are purposefully playful, bright and energetic. Interior finishes feature a maple wood gym floor, a polished concrete lobby floor and linoleum sports flooring in the multipurpose rooms. Durable, painted concrete block walls are appropriately designed to ensure the long-term durability of this multipurpose sports facility.
The building features a robust, energy-efficient and airtight exterior building envelope. The load-bearing cavity wall construction includes six inches of spray-foam insulation to reduce building energy loads.  LED lighting, daylighting and low-flow plumbing fixtures all contribute to energy and water conservation.  The roof structure was planned for the town to add photovoltaic panels at a later date.
The building contains a balance of large windows with solar shading devices on the southerly facing office and multipurpose spaces, while the gymnasium features high windows on the northeast and northwest corners to minimize potential glare in the gymnasium during sporting events. This also helps with the overall building energy profile through a naturally passive solar design.