Rec center expansion under way
Construction has started on a $6.3 million expansion project that will add 45,000 square feet to the Student Recreation Fitness Center.
The expanded space will be added to the northeast corner of the building, located just off 18th Street between Missouri and Alabama streets. Work on the project began in late May.
The project will bring numerous amenities to the facility, including four multi-purpose gymnasiums, 2,000 square feet of free weight space, two racquetball courts and a martial arts studio. There will also be a "storefront" area that will house an indoor computerized golf simulator. Mary Chappell, director of Recreation Services, said simulator users would be able to select real courses, such as Pebble Beach, and hit a golf ball into a screen, which will then simulate the outcome of the shot and keep score.
The center currently has a 1/8-mile track, which will wrap around the new gyms, making it ? mile in length upon completion. It will change from its current oval shape to include new turns, which will provide a unique flow to the track.
Plans call for the project to be completed before the start of the 2008-09 academic year.
"If all goes well, we're looking at hopefully a June or July (2008) completion," Chappell said. "We hope to have everything finished and have it ready for the fall semester that year."
Opened in 2003, the center was funded by student fees. Students approved a referendum in 1999 to increase recreation fees to cover the costs of construction. Students negotiated a seating agreement in Allen Fieldhouse with the Department of Athletics to further assist funding the expansion. Students exchanged 1,500 reserved seats in exchange for a portion of the revenue generated by them being earmarked to fund the expansion.
Chappell said it was known an expansion would be necessary when the building was originally constructed, and that within a year, the funding agreement was reached.
Workers are taking care to limit disruptions in services during the expansion.
"We will have to close down some things as they go through, but hopefully we can get that done this summer," Chappell said.
The facility is open to students, their spouses or partners, faculty, staff and affiliates. Faculty, staff, affiliates and their spouses must pay a fee to use the facility. The policy and hours of operation are available at www.recreation. ku.edu.
Chappell said the expansion would allow for new activities and classes as well as enhance to overall recreation and fitness options at the center. Two of the new gyms will have a synthetic floor surface and rounded corners, which can support sports such as indoor soccer and floor hockey.
"This expansion is going to allow us to expand in a programming area, as well as introduce people to some new things," she said. "We truly are part of the university's mission. We hope to be able to add to the student experience, as well as the faculty and staff experience."
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