The current ambience in Half Acre Gym on the University of Wyoming campus conjures descriptive words like “industrial” and “dungeon.”
All that will change beginning next fall when Half Acre Gym will undergo a massive facelift—to the tune of $27 million dollars.
The project to renovate half acre began in 2007 when the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming began to encourage the administration to look into remodeling the building. ASUW allocated $100,000 of its funds toward hiring a consultant to look at the project.
ASUW President Megan Degenfelder has been working on the project since she took office in May 2011.
Degenfelder said finding the funds between 2007 and 2011 was unsuccessful because it’s difficult to find donors for a nonacademic building.
After years of minimal success fundraising, ASUW voted in the spring of 2010 to increase the student fees $60 per semester over two semesters in order to cover $15 million of the $26 million project.
Then there was an opportunity last summer to request capital construction funds from the state legislature.
Degenfelder and ASUW Director of Government Affairs Jon Hunzeker made it their goal to attend legislative meetings and talk about the issue. They met with commissioners, the Joint Appropriations Committee, and Governor Matt Mead. ASUW gave tours of Half Acre gym to legislators and went to meetings of the Joint Appropriations Board.
Before the 2012 legislative session began, Gov. Mead issued his budget recommendation. Degenfelder she was surprised that rather than the $12 million requested, Mead had recommended $15 million for the project.
“It was very, very exciting to see that support,” Degenfelder said. “That has been our biggest goal for the year. Making this project happen.”
The major need for renovation stemmed for the fact that the gym is not disability accessible. There are no elevators in the entire building.
“There are stairs going down to the pool and stairs going up to the track. In the two most common places for students with disabilities, there is absolutely no access,” Degenfelder said.
Another reason for the renovation is the space itself is not adequate for the average 2,000 patrons per school day student population, Degenfelder said.
Now that the project is rolling, plans are beginning to come out. Construction will last 18 months but the building will remain open for use.
The building will expand from the current 77,537 square feet to 146,793 square feet. Other aspects of the renovation include a three-story climbing wall modeled after Vedauwoo, a larger home for the UW Outdoor Program, short term parking for picking up equipment rentals and the racquetball courts will be renovated to meet official specifications.
The new building will have offices, classrooms, and meeting rooms moved to the entrance so students do not have to walk through the locker rooms to have meetings.
Due to the popularity of intramural basketball, most of the courts at Half Acre are in use every day of the week. During intramural season, there is no place for club sports to practice and students cannot just go shoot hoops.
To alleviate the demand for the courts, the renovation will have a multipurpose court in addition to the basketball courts. The indoor track will expand so that seven laps make up a mile rather than the current 10-lap mile.
In addition to being disability accessible, elevators will allow Half Acre staff to transport exercise machines in a more ergonomic way, not the old-fashioned up-the-stairs method staff must use now.
“This is going to impact so many students. You talk to the average student and where do they go during the day? They go to class, to the library, and to the gym,” Degenfelder said.
