The U’s Outdoor Recreation Program will have a new place to call home after the Paralympic Games.
Most people find the department’s current location, south of the Huntsman Center, by accident, according to campus recreation manager Rob Jones.
“We do get a fair amount of accidental traffic [at our current location],” he said.
The new building, located in the Fort Douglas complex, served as the bathhouse to an old swimming pool. Currently known as Building 650, the renovation project will provide the program with more storage area, brand new offices and a larger customer service area.
Rick Johansen, an employee of Campus Design and Construction, is serving as project manager and is overseeing the renovations.
“It’ll be about the same in terms of square feet, but there will be a bigger grass area to lay out [outdoor recreation] equipment,” Johansen said.
In addition to the larger grass area, a new storage building and a laundry area are planned. One of the building’s best benefits, however, has nothing to do with renovation.
“This puts us a little closer to the residence halls, since it’s pretty hard to get to the residence halls from our current location,” Jones said.
Outdoor recreation provides individuals and groups the opportunity to participate in various outdoor activities through organized trips, and also rents out equipment for such activities as backpacking, river running, mountain biking and skiing.
The building has been vacated and used as a storage area, and has been inaccessible since Jan. 9, according to Barbara Snyder, senior vice president for student affairs.
Though the Olympics has delayed completion of the $250,000 renovation project, outdoor recreation plans to move into the renovated building by May 1.
Randy Turpin, vice president for administrative services, believes it will be difficult for the contractors to meet their deadline due to the zoning of land to SLOC and an agreement made between U administrators and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is building a new institute complex south of campus.
“We really have some serious deadlines, and it’s going to be extremely difficult for us to meet that May 1 deadline,” Turpin said.
Turpin also gave several reasons why Building 650 was chosen as the site for outdoor recreation’s new home.
“This gave us the opportunity to renovate another building rather than leave it derelict, and the fenced yard that came with the building was an attractive amenity that was already there, and will give the program a place to store their equipment,” he said.
In addition, the building’s location to the residence halls and the Health Science Center helped U administrators make their decision to choose Building 650.
“It all added up to a really nice fit for them,” Turpin said. “I think it’s going to be a really nice facility, and it looked like a win-win situation for everyone.”
Jones is confident that student involvement and interest will remain high when outdoor recreation relocates.
“My overall thought is that this is a new challenge for the program, but for the past 10 years or so, this program has been built on the success of student involvement,” Jones said.