By Santiago Brion and Shawn Ness | March 7, 2022
Photo Credit: UAlbany Sports Website
The Colonial Quad fitness center has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic, and nearly two years later, remains offline due to ongoing renovations that are part of a larger university project.
The renovations have proved to be difficult for student athletes and members of the swim club, as athletes have had to train in gyms off-campus.
The Colonial Quad fitness center will be shut down for the foreseeable future, meaning that teams such as club basketball and volleyball will continue to be affected.
The fitness center is currently closed because it shares a ventilation system with the former Colonial Quad dining hall, which is currently being used as a New York State COVID-19 testing site, according to Jordan Carleo-Evangelist, the university spokesperson.
The current project will be completed by the end of 2022 to early 2023, however the full renovation of the P.E. building will take many years and will occur in several phases, according to Carleo-Evangelist.
“The P.E. building is a very large, long-term project that will occur over several phases and a number of years,” said Carleo-Evangelist. “Of course we'd prefer to do this work while students are not here, but it's not possible to complete multi-phase, multi-million-dollar renovation projects over the relatively short summer intersession. If we didn't do this work while students are here we'd never be able to complete projects this large.”
During its current phase, the bleachers and sections of the gym floor have been removed. A new scoreboard is being added along with a sound system in place.
The mechanical equipment in the pool area is being removed from the pump room as well as under-slab piping, and structural fill will be brought in to fill the entire pool. The fill serves as a base to create a structural flooring system for a new mezzanine in future phases.
The overall project for the physical education building is estimated to take up to six to ten years, according to Carleo-Evangelist.
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