The Emily Krzyzewski Family LIFE Center is named in honor of Duke Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski’s late mother. The Center’s materials describe the project as a community center that will be a “lighthouse of hope” in Durham’s West End, a neighborhood that is “home to an urban mix of races and incomes that remind Mike Krzyzewski of the inner-city Polish neighborhood [in Chicago] where he grew up.” The Center, it is hoped, will extend “the energy of [Mrs. Krzyzewski’s] positive influence throughout the West End of Durham.”
The 31,000 square foot center features a full-size basketball court which functions as two courts when divided by an operable partition. The hardwood court which was installed has special significance, since Coach Krzyzewski’s Blue Devils won the NCAA championship on its surface in Minneapolis by defeating Arizona 82-72 on Monday, April 2, 2001.
The building’s structure is a load-bearing masonry cavity wall with brick veneer and a steel beam, steel truss, and bar joist roof structure. The facility will feature the gymnasium space, plus men’s and women’s locker rooms, staff and director’s offices, and community rooms. The Emily Krzyzewski Family LIFE Center building required a cast-in-place concrete (and waterproofed) building retaining wall.
