The Hamilton Recreation Center at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) has recently undergone some major renovations. Construction upon the Recreation Center commenced in July and extended multiple weeks into CMU’s fall 2019 semester.
The renovations will specifically help improve the swim team and other general facilities. Construction on the project was minimized as not to disrupt students looking to access the Recreation Center.
What had once served as the spin room has transformed into the men’s swim locker room. Along with that, the women’s swim locker room was just recently reopened.
The spin room was relocated to the upper area of the Hamilton Recreation Center. While the spin room saw no additional equipment, there is now more space for spin classes to be held than before.
“We relocated our cycle studio to the upper level near our other GroupX studios. The new space offers a theater-style layout with a spacious feel, natural light and new sound equipment. The Olympic lifting area that had occupied that space was relocated downstairs into an area adjacent to our back stretch area. We also gained a new long, narrow stretching space adjacent to the new locker room that has become extremely popular in a very short time,” Lynn Wilson, the director of campus recreation at CMU said in an email statement to The Criterion.
In order to add an Olympic lifting area, classrooms 153 and 154 were used to do so. The goal with the Olympic lifting area is to provide students with a more private area to workout.
Much of these renovations are oriented around assisting students by improving their access to exercise facilities.
“Due to the growth and success of our CMU swimmers & divers, they needed facilities that better meet the needs of a competitive, collegiate swim and dive team. This resulted in a shift of spaces that the Rec had to new locations to make room for that,” Wilson said.
As CMU grows in terms of enrollment rate, expanding the recreation center seems to be a practical idea.
“Thinking about how many people are in the school, adding more equipment would mean more for the people,” CMU freshman Brian Joya said.
“These shifts in space have allowed us to move lifting to a lower level which eliminates any sound issues from being on an upper level. Having the cycle studio upstairs puts all of our GroupX studios together in one end for easier access to classes,” Wilson said.
As construction comes to an end, Lynn Wilson has begun to hear feedback on the new renovations around the Hamilton Recreation Center.
“We have only heard very positive comments about all of our changes. Students enjoy the “pocket” where the new lifting area is and everyone loves the new cycle studio. Staff could not be [more] proud of the outcome with these changes,” Wilson said.
