Construction on the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center, the second phase of a three-part plan to revamp Tufts' athletic facilities, began in April and is on track to open to students at the beginning of September 2012.
"We're right on schedule," Vice President for Operations Dick Reynolds said.
"When we first started working through the plan last summer, this is the timeline we had in mind. This will allow us to finish in time to have it ready for the opening of school."
The three-story building, home to a new fitness center, sports medicine facilities and offices, will expand Tufts' athletics facilities and reshape the entrance of the Medford/Somerville campus. Construction on the 42,000-square-foot project, estimated to cost $16.6 million, began April 12 and is slated to finish by Aug. 1, 2012, according to Project Manager Mike Skeldon.
Stanmar, Inc., a construction company that specializes in athletic facilities for educational institutions, is heading up the project. So far, the company has removed topsoil from the construction site and prepared concrete foundations that will support steel pillars, Reynolds said.
Steel for the building frame is expected to arrive the first week of June, at which point Stanmar can begin work on the frame, according to Reynolds.
The goal is to have the building fully constructed and weathertight before November of this year, leaving work on the interior for the colder months, Skeldon said.
During construction, the entrance to the existing athletic center has been shifted to the Cousens Gym doorway. Besides a different entryway and some minor work on doors between the old and new buildings, the construction process is not expected to interfere with normal operations in the existing athletic buildings, according to Reynolds.
"Everything will be open and fully utilized during the whole construction period," Reynolds said.
In addition to the updated interior facilities, the plans for the new athletic center give the entire complex a more defined main entrance, according to Athletic Director Bill Gehling, who said the old ramp entrance "gave the wrong message for what happens down here."
"We've known for a long time that our fitness center was inadequate," he said. "And a suitable entrance to the facility was needed for a long time."
Assistant Athletics Director for Athletics, Facilities, Fields and Game Management Tim Troville agreed. "Right now there are multiple doors in many locations. Finding the entrance is difficult," he said. "[The new building] is going to give us a central welcoming atrium."
Additional locker rooms and a new sports medicine facility will be found on the lower level of the new building. Troville said the expanded medicine facility will be able to serve a more diverse segment of the student body.
"It's currently overcrowded with varsity athletes, runners from the President's Marathon Challenge, club sports and physical therapy patients," Troville, who is also the Athletics Department's project manager for the construction, said. "This will be a very nice way to help the population as a whole."
The ground floor will be devoted to a fitness center, essentially doubling the current size of Tufts' workout facilities, Reynolds said.
Half of Chase Gym is currently designated for sports team use while the other half is meant for all students. Once the new building is open, the general student body will use the new 7,000-square-foot facility, and the Chase Gym will open exclusively for team use, Reynolds said.
"It'll vastly expand fitness opportunities for students at Tufts," Troville said, adding that gym users will notice an improvement in terms of accessibility.
"The current fitness center is inadequate as far as equipment quantities," he said. "This will cut wait times down significantly."
A multipurpose room for activities such as yoga and aerobics, a meeting room and various lounge areas are also incorporated into the building's design, Skeldon said.
The top floor will host the new Athletics Department offices, which are currently located in Halligan Hall, Gehling said. The neighboring Departments of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering in Halligan will expand into the old athletics offices, Troville said.
"We've outgrown our space, and they've outgrown their space, too," Troville said.
Department of Computer Science Chair Carla Brodley said the members of her faculty are ecstatic at the prospect of extra space.
"We're completely overcrowded," Brodley said. "We're bursting at the seams with respect to our classrooms and lab space," Brodley said, adding that some faculty are currently sharing offices or using makeshift office space.
The outdoor surroundings of the new building will also receive a facelift, with more plants, according to Gehling. The fence around the parking lot opposite Cousens will be removed, and the lot exit will be reconfigured for better traffic flow on College Avenue.
The construction of the sports and fitness center is the second stage in a three-phase plan. The first phase involved renovations to Cousens Gym in 2008. Plans for the third phase are still indefinite, as construction options will depend on fundraising and will not be solidified until after the current project's completion, Reynolds said.
Gehling said the principal goals for the third phase include a new swimming pool, regulation-size squash courts and additional locker and equipment space.
