Construction for the new 600,000 square-foot recreation center which will replace Larkins Hall is expected to begin next fall.

Phase I is anticipated to begin on the new Recreation and Physical Activity Center – a project which will cost $140 million – in October 2002. Phase I, the programming phase, will determine the number of gyms, courts and recreational rooms the buildings will contain.

“There are essentially four phases before construction can begin and we are at the end of the third,” said Diane Jensens, associate director of recreational sports. The center will have just about everything from locker rooms to short-term babysitting.

Jensen said the building will contain nearly 25,000 square-feet of fitness space and courts for basketball, volleyball and badminton. The facility will also host a variety of outdoor clubs, a state-of-the-art two-story climbing wall and an outdoor adventure center. The climbing wall and outdoor adventure center will be just east of Blankenship Hall.

A sixth-of-a-mile long jogging track and a new aquatic center -including a 50-meter pool, a diving pool, instructional pools, a leisure pool and a hot tub – will be another part of the center. Adjacent to the buildings will be 12-15 new tennis courts, three grass fields and one artificial in-fill turf surface.

“The recreational center sounds like it will be a first-class facility,” said Jennifer Borowiec, a junior in business.

“It is exciting to know the university is realizing students as well as faculty need a bigger space for activities,” Borowiec said. “I am at Larkins all the time and it is always crowded. Hopefully the new center will fix that problem.”

Jensen said the second phase is symmatic design, or putting the puzzle together.

“The neat part of this project is deciding where everything should go,” she said.

The four buildings will all be connected by an underground passageway, and two of the buildings will have skyway connections. Jensen said the first part of the project will be built right on top of the tennis courts directly west of Larkins Halls during Phase I. Larkins Hall will be demolished and built up again starting from square-one, after Phase I is completed.

Michael Prendergast, a senior in computer engineering, said it will be a big project which is well overdue.

“All the other main universities in Ohio – like Miami and Ohio University – have a brand new recreation center. This will be great for OSU,” Prendergast said.

Jensen said the third part of the project is design development. This includes planning intricate details like where lights and doors will be placed. Also during this phase, the decisions are made on things like what finishes go on the courts and any other specific elements.

“Once this phase gets approved, we will move onto our final phase – construction documents.” These documents will be the blueprints of the R-PAC.

“This project all started because students were telling us this needed to happen,” Jensen said. “We are quite excited.”