Indoor Track & Field Facility

A model of the new Student Recreation Center and Indoor track facility with a 300m track.

A new Student Recreation and Wellness Center will open at The University of Akron in 2003. The facility will include such features as: a four-lane, elevated running track; basketball courts; rock-climbing wall; recreational pool and weight room. It will be located at the southeast corner of Carroll and Union streets, across from the James A. Rhodes Health and Physical Education Building (JAR). Also on the drawing board is a proposed Athletic Field House to be built adjacent to the Recreation Center. Plans include a 300-meter track, spectator seating, 100-yard turf field, varsity weight room, sports medicine facilities, indoor golf practice facility, batting cages, three locker rooms, equipment room and office space. Both projects are part of a $200 million, five-year campus improvement program. Under this initiative, The University will add six new buildings and create 30 acres of new green space to build a "New Landscape for Learning" in Akron. The first of the new structures, the Polymer Engineering Academic Center, opened in June 2001.

      
 
Image Courtesy of Alltel Publishing

      
STUDENT RECREATION CENTER/ATHLETIC FIELD HOUSE/INDOOR TRACK
Description: The recreation center will include a weight training area, a four-lane
indoor track, basketball courts, an aerobics area, a juice bar/food service area,
climbing walls, leisure pool, conference/multipurpose rooms and other facilities.
Spicer Hall will be demolished to make room for the center, which will be
physically connected to the Ocasek Natatorium.

Size: 285,000 square feet

Location: 382 Carroll Street

Construction Begins: Summer 2001 

Project Completion: Spring 2003 

Project Budget : $41,600,000

Design: Moody/Nolan Architects, Columbus, Ohio

Construction Manager: The Ruhlin/Kenmore joint venture, Akron, Ohio