Beginning in mid-October, a 7,000-square-foot addition to the
John Wooden Center will break ground to update and expand
UCLA’s gym. The new wing, Wooden West, will house an entirely
new weight room, which will also allow for more cardio equipment to
be accommodated in the facility.
In addition to the weight and cardio facilities, Wooden West
will include offices for UCLA’s Outdoor Adventure Program,
currently housed in Wooden’s lobby.
“Basically we’re more than tripling the size of the
existing weight room, which will allow for significant additions to
the cardio and weight facilities already in place,” said Mick
Deluca, Director of UCLA Recreation.
Two elliptical machines have already been added to the facility
and two more will arrive before construction begins.
“We added the elliptical trainers because we realize the
importance of equipment for students,” said Dan Wax, manager
of the Wooden Center.
According to Wax, more than $300,000 will be invested in new
weights, both Selectorized tin weight machines and free
weights.
“Our plans include adding an additional 20 to 30
treadmills, 20 to 40 bikes, 20 stairclimbers and 10 to 20
elliptical machines,” said Wax on the approaching
extension.
During construction, which has an expected completion date of
late fall quarter 2003 or the beginning of winter 2004, access to
Wooden will not be limited.
“At some point, we’ll begin to lose the wall on the
existing weight room as well as access to the courtyard,”
Deluca said. “At that time we’ll have to shift
equipment into other areas like the event lobby or temporarily use
a racquetball court. But there will still be full access to the
Wooden Center.”
“There will be no limited access,” Wax said.
“We’ll just have to relocate the current weight room
equipment.”
The addition will be funded by the 2002 senior class gift and
the Students Programs, Activities, and Resource Complex (SPARC)
referendum, which was recently passed to raise student fees to $84
a year from $36.
Comparatively, students at University of California, Irvine
passed a similar referendum to finance the construction of their
new Anteater Recreation Center, and are assessed a yearly fee of
$264. The Wooden Center was built in 1983 and was the first
building erected on a UC campus that was funded by a student
referendum.
The importance and popularity of gyms at all UC campuses has
prompted renovations and construction across the state.
Berkeley’s Strawberry Canyon Fitness Center, similar to
UCLA’s Sunset Recreation Center, was expanded to house more
cardio equipment; UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz are currently
building new gym facilities; and UC San Diego’s and
UCI’s gyms are recently constructed.
Several students have voiced their approval of expanding the
Wooden Center.
“Santa Monica College’s gym is smaller, but it has
newer equipment,” said Mike Rezai, a second-year transfer
from SMC. “This place just looks torn down.”
Third-year Melissa Hoffman said, regarding the approaching
expansion, “We’re college students, we can’t
afford to pay for a membership to a gym like LA Fitness. The school
has an amazing gym for the athletes; the least they can do is make
something somewhere along the lines of that for the rest of
us.”
The construction on Wooden was prompted partially by a student
advisory committee, and student concerns addressed to
management.
“If we were to design this building today, we’d do
it completely differently,” Deluca said in July.
“20,000 square feet would be optimum, but to be tripling our
space with this expansion will have a significant effect on the
facility, in addition to the tripling or quadrupling of pieces of
equipment.”