REC CENTER
During this past week, NIC students have had the opportunity to give their feedback on how they want the Student Wellness and Recreational Center to look like, as well as the amenities that it should have.
Sarah Garcia, project manager, said for now NIC needs to figure out how to set the space to try and get the majority of activities that students want to do.
One of the opportunities students had was to put a yellow dot in a board listed with different activities that students considered were important for the rec center to have.
Garcia said this was a way to determine which activities were most important to the students so that they could make sure that as they continue to design the building the spaces and rooms are appropriate
Garcia said at this point, they have not eliminated anything from the list of activities but it is unlikely that they can do all of them and the ones that need specific dedicated space, such as racquetball, sauna, Jacuzzi, roller derby and a putting green will likely not be available in the new center.
“We think it is better to use the space and the money to provide opportunities for the things that the majority of students want to do,” Garcia said.
“If the students are really interested in strength training, we want to try make that space as big as we can. If there were very little interest in aerobics type classes, we might consider making that room a little smaller so we could make the strength training room bigger.
The project is managed by ALSC architects, a company which also designed the Student Fitness Center at Gonzaga University and the YMCA in Spokane, among others.
David Huotari, ALSC architect, said the new rec center would be a 30,000 square foot, two-story facility located in south of River Avenue behind Winton Hall, where the tennis courts currently reside.
“For now we are testing different possibilities of how the Wellness Center will look like,” Huotari said. “We’ve listed some outdoor activities but we have no idea if we got enough of them or if we got the right ones, or if someone says that’s a dumb idea, so we want people to tell us what should we not forget because honestly there are more things on the list that we can do. Students should stay tuned because this is a great project.”
Garcia said there are going to be scheduled group fitness activities but those would be separate from the NIC courses; the P.E credit classes that are being offered will remain.
“The Rec Center belongs to the students and if the P.E department wants to use it they will have to pay rent for it,” Garcia said. “This is a students place first, and the P.E department is not the primary focus of the facility.”
Some students have expressed their concern about the soon to be destroyed tennis courts.
“The tennis courts are fairly old, they needed to be repaired and there was something that needed to be done with them anyways,” Heather Erikson, assistant director of student development, said.
Based on the pictures presented, other students expressed their concern about not having enough parking spaces.
“We want to make sure that is accessible for people but at the same time that we don’t want to limit our program in space that is our most valuable resource by making more parking,” Erickson said. “The closest parking has over 200 of parking spots and right now that is where you would park if you were to use the tennis courts.
Erikson said the Rec Center would focus primarily on students because they are the ones paying for it, and if the NIC community wants to have access to it they will have to pay a fee.
Some of the possible activities include: Yoga, pilates, cross fit, step aerobics, ballet, basketball, dodgeball, floor hockey, climbing, stretching, strength training, sand volleyball, frisbee golf, basketball, cycling, horses shoes, treadmill, elliptical, martial arts, among others.
“We want your feedback.” Houtari said. “This is what is going to make the project and we are really excited for you to be able to tell us what are your thoughts and ask us a lot of questions, and see what we can do.”
This is a project that ASNIC has been working for over 15 years. The board of trustees approved the building last April.
