Purdue News
Purdue News1998
The project to build a new Aquatics Center and renovate the original parts of the Recreational Gymnasium is a model of cooperation among three areas of the University.
"We've combined projects and, by doing that, we'll realize much more benefit working together than if we proceeded separately," says Morgan Burke, director of intercollegiate athletics and former swim team captain as a Purdue student. Intercollegiate Athletics joins the Division of Recreational Sports and the Department of Health, Kinesiology and Leisure Studies in the project.
Three pools on campus will be closed as part of the project, replaced by the pool and diving well in the new Aquatics Center. The number of swimming lanes on campus actually will double.
After completion of the Aquatics Center, the facility will be used by varsity swimmers and divers, as well as for recreational and educational purposes. A movable bulkhead will allow the 50-meter pool to be used for multiple activities at the same time.
Early on, planners decided to replace rather than add to the number of pools on campus.
"The outdoor pool at the Co-Rec would take over $1 million to bring up to modern standards," says Thomas Templin, head of the Department of Health, Kinesiology and Leisure Studies in the School of Liberal Arts. "And the Lambert pool is outdated and far behind the facilities of our competition."
From 1988 to 1996, Templin was director of the Division of Recreational Sports.
The indoor pool at the Co-Rec will be replaced by a 5,800-square-foot aerobics studio, which also will be available for campus groups to use for large meetings and other events.
The 60-year-old Lambert Gymnasium pool also will be eliminated. No plans have been made for that space - yet.
Plans for an exercise, nutrition and fitness education and research center are taking shape. The center will be located in renovated space on the lower level of Lambert, in an area now used for locker rooms - space adjacent to the current pool.
The center, too, is a cooperative effort of several areas of the University. Besides HKLS, the Department of Foods and Nutrition in the School of Consumer and Family Sciences, Recreational Sports, and Intercollegiate Athletics will work together to sponsor and operate the center.
Eventually, Templin says, the exercise, nutrition and fitness center could expand into the vacated pool space in Lambert.
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
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