Groundbreaking ceremony marks official start of construction project for fitness, recreation, and athletics

On Friday, April 25, 2003, Kenyon College marked the beginning of the largest construction project in its history with a groundbreaking ceremony for the Kenyon Center for Fitness, Recreation, and Athletics. Despite the threat of April showers, the event at the site formerly occupied by Wertheimer Fieldhouse drew numerous representatives from every constituency, including the alumni, the community, parents, the student body (athletes and nonathletes alike), and the Board of Trustees, which was conducting its annual spring meeting that weekend.

"Never before has the College erected a building of this size, or with this potential for improving the time students spend outside the campus's classrooms, laboratories, studios, and residence halls," said Acting President Ronald A. Sharp in greeting those assembled for the occasion. "For years now, if not decades, many of Kenyon's athletic teams have made do with inadequate or substandard facilities. The same has been true for those students and other community members who relied on the College for fitness and recreational facilities. No matter what your preferred activity, you were likely to be pursuing it in a dank and gloomy space where fresh air and temperature control were things about which you could only dream.

"All that is about to change, in fact has already begun to change, as you can see from today's setting," Sharp continued. "Wertheimer Fieldhouse, the surplus drill hall that served as Kenyon's gym for almost fifty years, the usually too-hot or too-cold second home to generations of athletes and fitness enthusiasts, is gone. Thanks to a remarkable anonymous gift of $25 million---one of the largest ever to a private liberal-arts college--and to other gifts already pledged and yet to come, you will soon see rising on this spot a $60-million building, full of energy and light, that will be the envy of many of our peer institutions. More importantly, it will add a new dimension to student life at the College, and for many others in the community as well."

Facilities on the main floor of the 263,000-square-foot building will include a large open lobby with a café, study lounge, conference room, and informal seating, four tennis courts, a new Tomsich Arena for basketball, volleyball, and convocations, a natatorium with a pool measuring fifty meters by twenty-five yards, a 200-meter track with a large infield area for indoor practices, a 10,000-square-foot multi-activity court, an athletic-training suite, locker rooms, and offices for members of the fitness, recreation, and athletics staff. A mezzanine level will accommodate a 12,500-square-foot fitness area (with space for more than two hundred pieces of equipment), a 120-seat theater, four classrooms, two multipurpose rooms, a broadcast video laboratory, a spectator area for the pool, and additional offices. The building's basement will feature eight squash courts and four racquetball courts.

"The significance of this event and the structure whose construction we are marking is that it fully embraces and extends the rich traditions of Kenyon as a quality academic institution and residential college," said Dean of Students Donald J. Omahan '70 in his remarks. "In undertaking the construction of the Kenyon Center for Fitness, Recreation, and Athletics, we are able to acknowledge the commitment we share to the growth and development of our student, present and future, and to our very real sense and spirit of community."

Students Ashley J. Rowatt '03 and Gordon S. Pennoyer '03 also addressed the gathering, from the perspectives of the athlete and the nonathlete, respectively. Rowatt noted that one of the new building's best features will be the provision of facilities for all of the College's athletes to train under one roof. "Because we'll be in a building with glass walls and skylights, we'll be training under the sun and stars, in rain showers and snowstorms," said Rowatt, a molecular-biology major and national champion swimmer who was this year's winner of the Jess Willard Falkenstine Award as the College's outstanding female scholar-athlete. "Looking outside during morning practices, we'll see sunrises, and in the afternoon, leaves falling on an autumn day. There's a proven connection between a fit body and a sound mind, and this new facility will truly enhance the competitive experience for Kenyon's student-athletes for years to come."

"As much as this new facility is going to mean for varsity athletes, it will mean even more for the rest of the student body, people like me who just want a place to play pick-up hoops, hit around a tennis ball, or try to sweat off a weekend's activities," said Pennoyer, a political-science major, member of Campus Senate, and president of the Greek Council. "No longer will nonathletes have to feel like they're entering enemy territory when they want to work out. Instead, we'll have a facility the whole community can enjoy."

"Kenyon has recognized for a long while now the need to make substantial improvements in the facilities it provides for the pursuit of fitness, recreation, and athletics," said Michael E. Gibbons '74, fundraising chair for the project. "Now, thanks to one incredibly generous gift to the College of $25 million, we are on our way to having the best, instead of the worst, facilities in our conference. In fact, I fully expect the Kenyon Center for Fitness, Recreation, and Athletics to become a model for other colleges across the country." Gibbons, who played football and lacrosse on championship teams during his college years, is a principal of Brown, Gibbons, Lang, and Company, an investment firm in Cleveland, Ohio.

"As we raise funds for this spectacular building, and we will be working hard to do so, we will be asking the College's alumni, parents, and friends, as well as a number of corporations and foundations, to see and support a new way of looking at what institutions of higher education owe their students with regard to maintaining their physical well-being," Gibbons added. "Thanks to all those who planned and designed this facility, with such obvious care, I believe we can do that."

To conclude the ceremony, Benjamin R. Locke, Kenyon's James D. and Cornelia W. Ireland Professor of Music, conducted members of the College's Chamber Singers in a rousing rendition of "Stand Up and Cheer," from Songs of Kenyon.

The Kenyon Center for Fitness, Recreation, and Athletics is being designed by Graham Gund '63, whose firm, Graham Gund Architects, is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gund and his firm have already completed several new buildings on the College's campus, including the music department's Storer Hall, Hayes Hall for mathematics and physics, the chemistry department's Tomsich Hall, the Fischman Wing (headquarters for molecular biology) of Higley Hall, and the Eaton Center, which is occupied by Kenyon's finance division. The College recently engaged Gund's firm to create a new master plan for the campus, which will provide guidance for future construction projects.

Funding for the Kenyon Center for Fitness, Recreation, and Athletics is coming from three sources, including the $25-million anonymous gift announced last fall. Taking advantage of its tax-exempt status, the College is issuing bonds for approximately $19 million of the construction costs. The remaining $16 million is being sought from corporations, foundations, and individual Kenyon alumni, parents, and friends. It should be noted, however, that no contributions to the Kenyon Fund or the Kenyon Parents Fund--both of which are exclusively devoted to providing annual operating support--will be applied to the project.

Among the leaders of the project is Douglas W. Zipp, special assistant to the president for student facilities development, who headed the planning effort. In recent months, he has been working closely with the architects, the staff in fitness, recreation, and athletics, and other interested groups on campus and in the community as specifications for the building take their final shape. Clerk of the works for the project is Thomas V. Lepley, the College's long-time superintendent of buildings and grounds, who fulfilled the same role for the construction of the new music and science facilities and the Eaton Center. The primary contractor for the project is the Cleveland-based Albert M. Higley Company, which has served in the same capacity for almost every construction project at Kenyon since the 1960s.