McMaster University, Pulse Fitness Centre
Hamilton, Ontario
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Fitness and Conditioning Space, Multi-Use Studios, Climbing Wall, Field House
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2025 Hamilton Urban Design Award: Award of Excellence for Public Buildings
2025 Athletic Business: Facilities of Merit Design Award
2025 NIRSA Outstanding Facilities Award
2024 Architect's Newspaper Best of Design Award: Higher Education (Recreation & Leisure)
2023 Graphic Design USA (GDUSA): Design Award
The PULSE Fitness Centre is an expansion and renovation of an existing student athletics precinct. Incorporating consultation with various campus stakeholders and student feedback throughout its development, MJMA’s environmental graphics program for PULSE subverts the traditional aesthetics of a university gym. It enhances the facility’s range of inclusive programming, creating a sense of belonging and encouraging the University’s diverse student body to participate with the new amenities.
PULSE sits within a part of campus defined by its brutalist aesthetic and more recent glass and steel buildings, largely disconnected from the surrounding natural beauty of the Cootes Paradise Marsh and the Niagara Escarpment, the latter a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. PULSE’s environmental graphics program aims to remedy this with a biophilic approach: bringing the exterior indoors and defining a sense of place.
The design team first mapped circulation of PULSE users to select walls and surfaces across the building’s 3-storeys, ensuring students would encounter murals throughout their fitness journey.
Faculty worked closely with MJMA to select biophilic themed photos that directly relates to its space’s programming — the serenity of McMaster’s cherry blossoms in a yoga studio or a rushing waterfall in an elliptical studio. Key words were refined from McMaster Recreation’s mission and values statements and support the theme of each space.
To unify the program, the team developed a set of ‘Pulse’-like patterns based on vibrations, pulsations, and motion, each reflecting its place in the fitness centre. A pattern treatment of overlapping 45° lines abstract each photo, incorporating the ‘pulsating’ visual language.
When viewed close-up, the treatment appears as a vibrant pattern of linework; when the viewer moves away, the linework blends into the photo’s depiction. The results fill PULSE’s spaces with colourful graphics that connect students to the celebrated history and natural splendour of the McMaster campus.
