The Student Government Association of the University of Memphis had their first meeting of the school year Thursday to discuss their plans for the semester. One of the main topics was to look over the plans for redesigning the Recreation Center and adding the Center for Wellness and Fitness (CWF).
Richard Bloomer, a professor in the School of Health Studies, has been working with designers of the CWF to get a plan made. He said the CWF should be completed by fall 2020 and wanted SGA’s feedback on how to get students to use the facility.
“You hate to build a $30 million beautiful, outstanding facility, and then you don’t get the numbers that you would expect to get,” Bloomer said. “This is going to be a fantastic facility, a lot of different offerings above and beyond just your general fitness and wellness.”
The CWF will be on the corner of Southern Avenue and what is now Echles Street, near where the new pedestrian bridge is being built. Bloomer said some facilities in the current Rec Center, like the outdoor pool, will be closed and then added to the CWF when it is built.
While the current Rec Center and the Larry O. Finch Center will still be where they currently stand, they will be repurposed to add more features to the area. Because the men’s basketball team moved to their new Park Avenue practice center, the Finch Center that they used to practice in will open for student use.
The CWF will serve as both a workout and fitness center and a learning center, as it will have a demonstration kitchen in the front and classrooms near the back. Some other features it will include are an outdoor basketball court, an outdoor sand volleyball court, a two-level indoor running track, workout space, many indoor basketball courts, CrossFit studio space and hangout and study spaces both indoor and outdoor.
Tennis courts along with one extra recreation field will be added behind the current Rec Center.
Some SGA senators were skeptical of the two-year timetable Bloomer provided.
“Every year it seems like we get somebody else in here, and they say, “This is what the new Rec Center is going to look like,’” SGA senator Will Ritter said. “I’ve seen three different renderings. What I want to know is, are finances in place for this, and is that timetable that you gave us actually what’s going to happen?”
Bloomer responded that he just completed the last meeting with the design team, and this should be the most accurate estimate he can provide, although pricing for the construction has yet to be finalized.
