The competition is intense to attract top talent in Division I sports, so the St. John’s University Men’s Basketball program saw a need to overhaul their locker rooms as part of the recruiting process. The university reached out to Perkins Eastman to develop a new concept for a luxurious suite that would also celebrate the school’s storied history and tradition.

The plan had to stay within a limited budget and the constrained existing footprint of a single open space that was lined with lockers. Perkins Eastman’s challenge was to create three distinct areas—locker, lounge, and nutrition —in a manner that honored the “old-school” Carnesecca Arena but which also lived up to its peer institutions in the Big East Conference.

The design team was inspired by vintage metal lockers with high-fashion footwear that’s instantly recognizable yet elegantly simple: Black Louboutin stilettos whose iconic red soles peek from below, and Nike’s futuristic “Infrared” Jordans in the same colors.

The result is a new locker room suite designed in the school’s palette of black, gray and red; it flows easily from the nutrition area into the team lounge, and through a portal to the lockers and wet area beyond. Glossy black panels that line the lounge and frame the portals from one space to another make the relatively small footprint feel more expansive. Sleek, minimalist gray lockers open and retract to reveal the pop of St. John’s red inside, while storage built into the seating is ventilated in a pattern that nods to our classic locker inspiration.

The renovated suite now serves as a prominent recruiting focal point—and a posh home-away-from-home for the student-athletes who play for the Johnnies.