Peak performance
When it opens this fall, the PERFORM Centre will set new standards for research in the fields of exercise science and athletic therapy.
The installation of cutting-edge equipment has Concordia researchers excitedly anticipating the centre’s completion.
University Communications Services recently toured the facilities, slated to become Concordia’s second LEED-certified building (for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design).
The largest room at the front of the building will be used for rehabilitation research. The space is encircled by a running track. Brightly coloured walls and asymmetrical lighting will give the room a playful and cheery feeling.
A “metabolic kitchen” will provide researchers with controlled conditions for creating specific diets for test subjects. Additionally, a training kitchen with four stations will allow nutritionists to teach healthy cooking habits and devise personalized diets for students.
A room with a stability floor will allow researchers to analyze a client’s ability to maintain balance and equilibrium, and movement. (The client is harnessed to the ceiling to avoid an actual fall.)
There is also a complete athletic therapy clinic with athletic therapy student labs to train students. The clinic features a SwimEx hydrotherapy pool. The moulded fibreglass tub with coloured panels is designed to provide various degrees of resistance to test an athlete’s rehabilitation. Windows on the side of the pool allow footage of the patient’s movements to be recorded for later analysis.
The building will also sport a full imaging suite including a computerized axial tomography scanner (for CAT scans), a positron emission tomography (PET) scanner, ultrasound units, a DXA bone density scanner and a magnetic resonance imaging machine (MRI).
The MRI machine has a stand-alone foundation separate from the rest of the building to minimize vibrations and noise caused by the machine’s operations.
Finally there is a full cardiopulmonary suite, including a plethysmography unit, that will permit researchers to monitor changes in cardiac, pulmonary, and gas exchange function.
Staff from the Department of Recreation and Athletics will have permanent offices in the centre. The staff will occupy rooms on the east side of the building overlooking the playing field. In addition, there are boardrooms, meeting spaces, two clinical analysis labs and graduate student offices, as well as a press room for the varsity sports teams.
From many of the rooms, Adad Hannah’s colourful glass artwork, Leap, can be seen shining through the expansive window facade.
As construction nears completion, some lucky Concordians got a tour of the Loyola Campus PERFORM Centre which will function as therapy, research and training hub for exercise science:
Stay tuned to NOW for details on the grand opening scheduled for September 2011.
Related links:
• PERFORM Centre website
• “PERFORM Centre about to Deliver” - NOW, October 18, 2010
• “PERFORM Centre on Track” - NOW, November 8, 2010
• Adad Hannah’s artwork Leap