The newer, “greener” gym expansion announced its opening to the public today, with a ceremonious ribbon cutting at 3 p.m., followed by festivities from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The gym was flooded with UCF students, faculty and friends, as proud employees of the Recreation and Wellness Center prepared for the grand reveal of the brand new gym expansion. Although certain expansion areas, such as the weight floor and lap pool, were already open to the public since the beginning of the New Year, today’s ceremony offered the opportunity to learn about and tour the new facility.
The turnout for the grand opening was extraordinary, as hoards of people mulled through the sparkling new expansion, totaling 65,000 square feet. Sports clubs and fitness group leaders set up tables along the walls of the new hallways, offering information to the public about the semester’s events and opportunities.
On the new pool deck, live bands created a soundtrack to a game of water polo and a lap swimming between the school spirited black and gold lanes. Looking over the new pool is a spacious terrace that, for the grand opening, housed the Outdoor Adventure information center. The indoor section of the expansion features another weight floor, twenty new cardio machines, four racquetball courts, a larger basketball/indoor soccer court, a huge outdoor lap pool and a more spacious outdoor adventure center.
All of the cardio machines boast the “green” title because they capture energy in motion which is then converted into usable energy through the building’s central unit. In addition, the new indoor lighting system also intends to be environmentally friendly as it senses the amount of light shining in through the windows and adjusts accordingly.
With the new expansion, the gym now totals to a colossal 150,000 square feet of machinery, weights, courts, pools and countless plasma televisions lining hallway walls. Only time will tell if the number of people making use of the new gym will validate the costs and energy that went into its construction. And with no plans to cap expansion, we can be sure to expect more of this “green” way of building in the near future.
