Locker rooms within professional and major college athletic venues are now designed to serve as well appointed homes away from home. In fact, the term “locker room” is quickly being replaced with “clubhouse” to describe the facilities for professional and collegiate athletes.

Senior project architect Paul Griesemer of Ellerbe Becket’s Kansas City office tells the March issue of Athletic Business that teams building new home venues are wise to consider making the facility an all-inclusive destination for players by catering to their every training and therapy need. “Most teams like to enhance the idea that a franchise is almost like a family,” says Griesemer. “The idea of an upscale locker room has more to do with the overall everyday psyche of the players and making them feel glad to be with this organization.”

Griesemer was the project architect for the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field renovation. Locker room and support spaces in this renovation include a weight room, medical areas and a gymnasium, and unique features such as a football-shaped locker room and light fixtures configured to resemble a football’s laces. The Packers moved into their new facility in time for the 2002-03 season.