San Antonio Spurs, Victory Capital Performance Center

After leaders within the San Antonio Spurs professional basketball organization toured more than 250 training facilities across the U.S. and Europe to learn what other professional sports teams were doing to help players achieve top performance, they chose mass timber to build their new home.

The design helps them bring light and nature indoors, where players spend most of their time, and creates a people-centric, restorative, and supportive training environment. All areas of the building have the same basic structural design, leaving the glue-laminated timber (glulam) beams and columns, and cross-laminated timber (CLT) floor and roof panels exposed wherever possible.

The facility is divided into four zones, providing areas for athletic training, including practice courts and strength and conditioning spaces, as well as recovery, social, and office space. Outdoor terraces and patios, protected from public view, give players and staff restful privacy while a separate, members-only area called the Spurs Club gives fans an exclusive inside-look at the team’s operations as well as views down onto the practice courts, where huge, 130-foot-long glulam beams soar over the space.

The innovative mass timber design reflects the team’s reputation for prioritizing the well-being of their players. Use of wood also met the sustainability goals of the Spurs’ ownership and helped them create a uniquely Texan home that reflects the brand and mission of the team.

See the WoodWorks technical case study on this project.