32 High-Profile Focus: Schools and Institutions
A New Life for The Cage
By Dan Ollila
When you walk into Curry Hicks Cage at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, you’ re walking into nearly a century of athletic history. Built in the 1930s as an indoor exercise facility, it later became the legendary home of Minutemen basketball, the place generations of fans knew simply as The Cage and the“ House That Dr. J Built.”
For those of us charged with helping shape its next chapter, that history wasn’ t an obstacle to modernization. It was one of the reasons getting the project right mattered. Over time, Curry Hicks had transitioned into an indoor training facility for UMass Track & Field and Cross Country. But decades of adaptations had left a historic building that no longer fully supported the way today’ s Division I athletes train. The obvious answer might have been a new indoor fieldhouse. Instead, UMass asked a different question: How much more could we get from the
building we already had?
Working alongside nationally recognized track and field specialists, our team at Jones Architecture looked closely at how every square foot was being used. One of the most consequential moves was surprisingly simple: rotating the running lanes to better align with the building’ s geometry. We weren’ t creating more space. We were making the existing space work harder.
That move helped unlock room for sprinting, jumping, throwing, pole vault, strength training, stretching, recovery, and athlete wellness, all within the
Curry Hicks Cage at UMass Amherst original footprint. At the same time, we wanted the Cage to remain the Cage.
The original banked-concrete track remains beneath new Olympic-quality Mondo flooring. Former spectator areas became elevated running lanes, stretching and recovery spaces. A redesigned entrance creates an immediate visual connection into the training environment, while interpretive displays and reclaimed pieces of the original basketball floor connect today’ s athletes with the generations who came before them.
Some of the project’ s most important solutions are ones visitors will never
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see. Roof repairs, building-envelope improvements, and infrastructure upgrades were incorporated into the renovation. When we discovered that the building’ s primary electrical service originated beneath an adjacent facility, the team adapted by transforming the former ticket booth into an electrical distribution room.
That’ s the nature of adaptive reuse. Existing buildings rarely hand you a blank sheet of paper. They require you to listen, adjust, collaborate, and recognize opportunities that aren’ t always immediately apparent. For just under $ 9 million, UMass transformed Curry Hicks into a modern indoor training facility, a project that would have required an estimated $ 40 to $ 50 million to replace with new construction.
But the value goes beyond cost. UMass retained an important piece of its athletic identity while creating a bright, purposebuilt environment for today’ s athletes and a powerful recruiting tool for tomorrow’ s. Curry Hicks reinforced something I’ ve seen throughout my work on college and university campuses: new isn’ t always the answer. Sometimes the better investment is already standing in front of you. Our job as architects is to recognize what it still has the potential to become.
Dan Ollila is an architect at Jones Architecture.
From historic renovations to high-performance training environments, Jones Architecture helps you get more from your athletic facilities.
CURRY HICKS CAGE • THEN UMASS AMHERST
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