The $7.6 million Carmichael Gym renovations are nearly a month behind schedule, but the new fitness room will open Tuesday, adding about 5,500 square feet of fitness space, making it larger than the third-floor recreation center, the Playground. Phase 1 of the renovations will wrap up Monday, Feb. 1 and Phase 2 of the project will be completed in late April.
Phase 1 includes the new fitness room with 18-20 new pieces of state-of-the-art cardio equipment and strength training equipment for Olympic weight lifting, new men’s and women’s bathrooms near the front entrance and bright corridors that will be nearly double the previous size. In addition, students will have access to sections of the men’s and women’s locker rooms as well as two additional single-occupant locker rooms. Gym staff will have renovated storage and laundry areas as well as office space for the faculty managing the building.
Phase 2 will finish off the men and women’s locker rooms and include a sauna and steam room near the pool, as well as updated bathrooms.
Jason Spivey, associate director of University Recreation explained that it is not unusual for renovation projects this big to fall behind schedule because the original building is so old.
“[Carmichael] is an old building, built in 1961, and throughout the years to now in 2016 they only addressed issues with the building one problem at a time, not looking at the big picture,” Spivey said. “Once we started opening walls up, workers found some unforeseen conditions.”
In 1961, the Carmichael drawings and records of where electrical and plumbing lines were done with pencils and pens, making it challenging for contractors to rewire electricity when knocking down walls and re-route piping under streets and sidewalks, according to Spivey.
“There were hurdles like that down the road, but we’ve worked through it and come up with great solutions, so we are going to have a great project when we’re done,” Spivey said.
Alexis Gray, a sophomore studying business administration and part of the University Recreation staff, said students are most excited to have more space to workout in.
“People often come and ask me how crowded the rooms are even before they go inside because the Playground is so crowded, so they would have to find somewhere else to workout, it turns out everywhere is crowded,” Gray said.
Spivey credited the construction workers for all the work they have put in.
“The workers have put a lot of hours into this project, and we have really pushed them on the deadlines of when we wanted the project to be completed,” Spivey said. “The most [workers] we have had one day was 135 workers in the building. They have been working on top of each other and on weekends to get this done. Even over the holidays between Christmas and New Years when the university was shut down, they had 20 to 30 people in the building continuing to work and get things done.”
Eric Hawkes, director of University Recreation, said the old locker rooms were too big and outdated, so they were able to use some of that square footage for the new fitness space.
“I would argue old Carmichael had one of the largest, if not the largest, men’s locker room in the country,” Hawkes said. “So we were able to carve out that space for a fitness center for everybody.”
The new locker rooms are designed with new features to meet the needs of today’s gym-goers, according to Hawkes.
“One of the biggest feedbacks that we heard [from students] was that because of the gang showers and the old outdated lockers, everyone was uncomfortable to come in and change clothes,” Hawkes said. “So there will be individual changing rooms that are more inclusive, sort of like what you would see at Macy’s.”
In addition to more privacy, the new locker rooms will have added amenities to make it more comfortable, according to Hawkes.
“The new locker rooms will include a lounge with a TV and couches, so you can come and hang out if you’re waiting for a shower,” Hawkes said. “Students between classes can open up a book and read or check emails while they wait.”
The lockers in the locker rooms will have wooden phenolic z-shaped lockers designed to fit more stuff in them. Previously, the locker rooms offered both large and small lockers, and the large lockers would often fill up, and people would complain that the small lockers were not big enough.
Miranda Mozick, a sophomore studying civil engineering and University Recreation employee, said “The two weight rooms upfront are bigger than they are before, so it should be much less crowded once they are finished.”
