Pounding Steel and Pumping Iron: Progress on Stony Brook’s New Rec Center

The highly anticipated $37.5 million Student Recreation Center, which has been in the works since 1999 and was originally scheduled for completion by 2011, is currently expected to open in the Fall of 2012.
“One of the first steps required for the construction of a new building is to take soil borings to determine the type and bearing capacity of the soil so that concrete footings and foundations can be engineered. Soil borings were taken at the construction site for the Student Recreation Center, however, the results reported were incorrect,” explained Barbara Chernow, the Vice President for Facilities and Services, when asked about the delay. “Once the inaccuracies between the results of the borings and the actual soil were discovered several options were explored to determine the best way to proceed.” The unsuitable soil had to be replaced, putting a 6-month separation between the ceremonial groundbreaking in June 2010, and the actual groundbreaking in January 2011.
When asked if any contractors or subcontractor’s had to be let go of due to the setbacks, Chernow declined to comment, saying, “I cannot at this time discuss the legal aspects of this delay as it remains an open issue.”
The new building, which is under construction between the Sports Complex and the Student Union, will consist of three floors, with a total 85,000 square feet of programming space.
Earlier this November, the Campus Recreation staff at Stony Brook partnered with several different fitness companies to put together an Equipment Demo Expo in the Student Activities Center to test new equipment for the facility. Although the new machines, which create a more interactive work-out experience, received a lot of positive feedback from students, other students who prefer a more basic approach to working on their fitness will be happy to know that the new Recreation Center will feature a healthy mixture of high tech and low tech.
The Rec Center is anticipated to be one of the biggest student employers on campus, hiring over 200 students. Students lucky enough to see the project’s completion will undoubtedly find much to benefit from the new Student Recreation Center, ranging from an indoor track, a Multi-Activity Court, and a three-court gymnasium to new lounge areas, wireless internet, and day lockers.