Work Begins on Pitt-Bradford’s New Sports Center

Pitt-Bradford’s new sports center, a $9.84 million project that includes renovating the existing 25,000 square-foot sports center and building a 50,000 square-foot addition to it, is the first of three building projects that will take place at the 38-year-old campus over the next several years.

Construction of a new sports center at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford has begun, and it isexpected to be completed by the fall of 2002.

“We’re very excited that the new sports center is becoming a reality,” said Richard E. McDowell, Pitt-Bradford president. “The new facility will help us improve and expand both academic and athletic programs and enable us to offer more activities for our students and the community.”

The $9.84 million project will include a 50,000 square-foot addition to the current sports center, and, when that is complete, a renovation of the current 25,000 square-foot facility. The architect for the project is Burt Hill Kosar Rittlemann Associates of Pittsburgh.

Construction crews have begun their work in the front of the current facility, said Rich Esch, chief business and administrative affairs officer. The majority of the addition will be located in what is now the center’s parking lot. When the project is complete, a new, paved parking lot will be adjacent to the new portion of the sports center.

The new addition will house a state-of-the-art fitness center, new faculty and staff offices, a new gymnasium for intercollegiate athletics, new locker rooms, a main lobby area, and a six-lane, 25-yard NCAA Division III regulation swimming pool.

The facility also will house two new sports medicine classrooms, a new sports medicine physiology lab, and a new athletic training room, all of which will enable the college to expand its sports medicine major tremendously, said Bridgett Passauer, director of the college’s sport and exercise science program. Six new courses with an exercise physiology concentration and clinical courses focusing on athletic training have been added to the curriculum, Passauer said.

“We couldn’t have expanded the major without the addition of the physiology lab and the expansion of the sports center,” she said. “We hope in the future to expand our academic program even further.”

Once new construction is complete, the current sports center will be renovated. Workers will install a new roof; a new synthetic floor for the existing gymnasium, which will be used for recreational activities; and exterior doors. The existing auxiliary gym currently located at the rear of the sports center will be renovated and used as a dance studio and aerobics area.

“In recent years, Pitt-Bradford students have shown increasing interest in recreation and fitness, and they have put tremendous demands on the limited facilities that the college has been able to provide,” said K. James Evans, vice president and dean of student affairs. “Now that the new expanded sports center will become a reality, facilities to support recreation and fitness will be varied and comprehensive, thus providing students with superb facilities throughout the entire academic year.”

The sports center is the first of three construction projects at Pitt-Bradford. Blaisdell Hall, which will serve as the University’s fine arts building, is currently under architectural design, and the project to expand and renovate the Frame-Westerberg Commons was recently approved by the University of Pittsburgh’s Property and Facilities Committee, and is moving toward the design phase.

—Pat Frantz Cercone