Columbus, Ohio
Clubhouse Fitness Center
A five-car garage beside a Columbus, Ohio, apartment clubhouse is redesigned as a 1,117-square-foot fitness center, with new openings that bring in daylight.
The project
This project turns a five-car garage beside a Columbus apartment clubhouse into a 1,117-square-foot fitness center. The plan puts the exercise floor at the center, wraps support spaces around it, and adds new openings to bring daylight into what was a service building.
Converting a garage instead of building new
The garage was already enclosed and already beside the clubhouse, where residents gather. Reusing it gives the community a larger fitness amenity without a new building or an empty site to put one on.
The existing shell also set the limits. The footprint is fixed and compact, and the exterior has to sit comfortably next to a larger building. The design works inside those limits rather than fighting them.
Exercise floor at the center of the plan
The exercise area takes the middle of the plan, where the floor is most open and usable. Circulation and support spaces wrap its edges, so service functions stay out of the way of the equipment.
A reflected ceiling plan coordinates the lighting with the equipment area, the support rooms, and the new openings. Together, the floor plan and ceiling plan fit what a fitness room needs into one modest footprint.
New openings bring daylight into the garage
A garage is built for cars and has few reasons to let light in. The design studies new window and door systems for the former bays, along with new siding outside and a warmer ceiling treatment inside. Those moves do most of the work of turning a service shell into a room for people.
From site scan to permit set
Arcfluence's scope runs from a scan of the existing garage through a permit set, covering architecture, the interior buildout, and MEP coordination. On a conversion, that starting point matters. The new openings, lighting, and equipment layout are all drawn against the building as it actually stands.