Contractors are busily adding trim, touching up walls and completing final details in preparation for the grand opening of the $16.3 million transformation of the campus Recreation Center to a Recreation and Wellness Center.
The opening is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Feb. 29 with the campus invited to participate in what Tamara Moore, executive director, Auxiliary Operations, promises won’t be a standard ribbon cutting event. A 6 p.m. kick off celebration is also planned.
“They’ll be a ribbon but there won’t be a giant pair of scissors involved,” Moore said. “I promise, there will be a recreational theme to this ribbon cutting.”
The “Dedication to Wellness” promises tours, health screenings, games and even massages in addition to food and t-shirt giveaways. The building’s finishing touches won’t be 100 percent on celebration day but there’s still plenty of eye candy.
Skyler Rorabaugh, director, Recreation Center, can hardly contain his enthusiasm for the new features the expanded facility offers. During a recent tour, he pointed out floor sensors in group exercise rooms to aid those who are hearing impaired, more than $400,000 in new cardio and strength equipment, new locker rooms, gender neutral restrooms and basketball courts complete with height adjustable goals and nary a scratch on their polished wood surfaces. He was enthusiastic about a new piece of equipment called a Jacob’s Ladder and a paraplegic student who plans to use it to improve balance and upper body strength. A new entrance boasts paneling made from beetle kill pine and, of course, the building is designed to meet tough Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards.
The expanded facility is form and function. The 49,000 square foot expansion includes 10,000 square feet dedicated to the Wellness Center which combines the Student Health Center, previously in the Austin Bluffs Parking Garage, and University Counseling Center, previously in Main Hall.
The merger of physical health, mental health and recreation means one-stop shopping for campus community members seeking to feel better or enjoy the outdoors by renting a bike, tent or learning to tune a pair of downhill skis.
“The new Wellness Center allows us to dramatically increase our mental and physical health services to students including group therapy rooms and even a kitchen that will be used to help with the treatment of eating disorders and nutrition programs,” Stephanie Hanenberg, executive director, Wellness Center, said. “I’m excited to share our new space and new capabilities with the campus.”
Since Jan. 19, when the Recreation and Wellness Center opened, Rorabaugh and Hanenberg have been troubleshooting and making to-do lists. It is a thousand details such as a fire door that mysteriously beeps, replacing a paper sign outside the Wellness Center or a gas log fireplace in the center’s waiting room that needs adjustment after it got too hot for those sitting nearby.
It’s a process, Rorabaugh explained. Summer will bring landscaping, irrigation systems and finishing touches on exterior stucco. In the meantime, he’ll poke and prod contractors and get ready for a once-every-four years Leap Year reveal of the university’s newest crown jewel.
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