There has never been a more stressful time to be a student-athlete at the collegiate level — from navigating NIL deals to adjusting to the constant change of the transfer portal. It’s a lot to take in, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned working with hundreds of colleges and universities, sports teams, and healthcare systems across the country, it’s that the right environment can change one’s state of mind from overwhelmed to under control — boosting performance, productivity, daily mood, and mental health. We support mental health and neurodiversity in workplace design, so why not collegiate athletic environments?
To change the game, JLG Architects’ Sports and Healthcare Studios teamed up with the Summit League at the 2025 Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament in Sioux Falls, SD. Together, we pioneered the ‘Zen Zone,’ a new perspective in creative collaboration that supports the whole athlete — leveling the playing field for mental and physical health.
Balancing the Demand
“These days, conversations with collegiate coaches sound more like conversations with professional organizations, particularly in terms of training demand, recovery strategy, recruitment, and expected performance level of athletes,” said JLG’s Tom Betti, Sports Practice Studio Leader, AIA. “The differentiator is that professional athletes have the advantage of devoting 100% of their efforts to the end goal while collegiate athletes are in a finite balancing act between classrooms, courts, ice, and fields.” For many student-athletes, the daily schedule and demand is overwhelming, triggering everything from anxiety and panic attacks to depression — mental health hurdles that can bench even the most talented athletes.
To build solutions, JLG’s Healthcare and Sports Studios are fusing expertise to redefine sports health and the collegiate athletic environments that support both the physical and mental well-being of student-athletes.
The Zen Zone
Re-designing a designated room at the Holiday Inn, JLG and Summit League invited athletes, coaches, and team personnel to take a private break within a calming space and sensory-stimulating experience. “The ‘Zen Zone’ was their off-court mental reset, a place to recharge, meditate, or practice breathwork,” added Betti. “Although simulated in the hotel short-term, this is the kind of space collegiate campuses can easily replicate for long-term benefits.”
At its most practical level, the Zen Zone is a dedicated mental health space at a championship tournament site hotel, allowing athletes a safe space within a competitive environment where stress is especially high. On a deeper level, this space is a wellness experience appointed with items specifically tailored to strengthen athletes’ mental health, as well as league operations.
As Summit League’s Bryan Miller explained, “The Summit League and its member institutions recognize the importance of supporting student-athletes holistically, with both their physical and mental well-being. We prioritize providing tools and support resources to support our students broadly for their mental health needs.”
Cross-Studio Collabs
JLG’s cross-studio collaboration, between sports and healthcare, is a no-brainer; a tactic we’ve already implemented across several sports medicine and physical therapy facilities for health systems, sports performance centers, community recreation centers, and collegiate campuses.
In campus athletics, the result is thoughtful, neurodivergent spaces that intuitively promote healthy sport-life balance while boosting productivity, as well as athlete and building performance.
Design for the Student, Human & Athlete
At Colorado College’s Ed Robson Arena, JLG designed for the human, student, and athlete. Their arena provides supportive spaces that keep student-athletes on track to meet daily human needs, including access to natural daylight, relaxation/recreation, comprehensive sports therapy, nutrition stations, recovery zones, home-like study spaces, and state-of-the-art training spaces. To optimize customization, several of JLG’s studios scrutinized and mapped out interaction and player pathways, carefully considering daily and gameday activities of staff, administration, media, and recruits.
This process of “walking in the occupants’ shoes” is not unlike the master planning and design of hospitals and clinics. Afterall, these are all places that need to be designed to cater to diverse human needs across the spectrum of emotional and physical health. JLG’s Sports Studio is already a nationally recognized powerhouse but teamed with a healthcare studio that contributes cutting-edge expertise in behavioral health and sensory-sensitive environments, the outcome is unrivaled. “It’s not enough to provide aesthetically pleasing spaces, state-of-the-art training, and ample amenities — facility design needs to value the human condition,” added Betti.
Advocating for Students
JLG’s Healthcare Practice Studio leader, Todd Medd, AIA, is a passionate mental health advocate and co-founder of the 4-6-3 Foundation, an organization that connects youth and their parents, coaches, and mentors with mental health awareness and suicide prevention resources. He has accrued over 20 years of in-depth experience in the design of sensory-sensitive hospitals, clinics, physical therapy facilities, and behavioral health departments.
In many of Todd’s projects, he focuses on creating safe spaces that build comfort, belonging, and trust, with the goal to avoid trauma triggering. His team leverages the healing properties of biophilic indoor/outdoor design, specialized lighting and acoustics, strategic use of color/distraction imagery, varied placement of furniture, and respite rooms that reflect the unique human and cultural needs of staff and families. Todd’s cross-studio work in behavioral health now contributes to more inclusive, human-centric workplaces, dwellings, sports facilities, and collegiate campuses.
“Mental health and an understanding of neurodiversity steer our design process from the very start of every hospital, clinic, and sports therapy facility – our success is only weighed by how well we care for the humanity and well-being of our occupants,” said Medd. “I love that our clients have access to two specialized studios—Healthcare and Sports—that can work together to create niche spaces like the Zen Zone. Designated areas of respite in clinical and campus settings have a great purpose in helping prevent trauma, which can be rooted in childhood development, ongoing depression or anxiety, and certainly the high-stress, high-performance expectations of collegiate athletics.”
The Breakdown
Traditionally, collegiate athletic programs have focused on one goal: winning championships. Within the excitement of winning or striving to take their team to the next level, very few programs have paid attention to the toll these efforts made on their athletes’ physical and mental health. The concern has been a slow burn, ignited to its boiling point after the pause of the 2020 pandemic. Designing the Summit League’s “Zen Zone” was just one more step in the right direction.
As architects of collegiate sports and healthcare environments, support for mental health is now viewed as vital, just as important as supporting the physical body, including nutrition, training, and recovery. Our end goal is to create spaces that support the whole athlete, starting from within.
The takeaway is that strong performance starts with a strong mind. To compete for the country’s top recruiters, collegiate campuses must advocate for their student-athletes, providing athletic environments that help balance the daily demand and fuel self-care, from classrooms and locker rooms to training rooms and gameday. This is a generation that takes the time to take care of themselves.
Today, it’s a full-court press, with eyes on every internal and external aspect of individual student-athletes. In the game of life and collegiate athletics, strong mental health is the MVP.
Photo Credit: The Summit League
