Wellness Center planning continues

The construction for the Wellness Center is close at hand. By mid-September, the groundbreaking will begin and the building will be underway. As for right now, the details of the project are being finalized as far as what additional items will go into the Center. Zach Mullins, student government president, has been working alongside Sandra Gangstead, dean of college of health sciences; Mark Bowen, facilities planning project manager; and Dave Terrell, director of wellness programs, to make all of these main decisions in relation to what would work best in the space and what is the most cost effective. Mullins said,

“They have been doing presentations, a sort of a planning committee, to help figure out all that we want to have in the Wellness Center. We have been working closely on plans with the rock wall which will be a focal point when you first walk in, so it is one of our main topics of discussion.”

A lot of hard work has been going into every decision made for the center. Bowen said,

“With the climbing wall we are in the process of interviewing climbing wall manufacturers. The wall will approximately be 20 feet wide and 25 feet high, so we are looking at the different design elements the manufacturers have to offer and which of them will work best for the space.”

The rock wall is one of many entertaining features that the Wellness Center plans to offer. Bowen said,

“We’ve been going through the normal process of design and there are a lot of things related to that. The wellness center does have the aquatic area with two pools, one is a completive pool for swim meets and then there is a leisure pool. They will be used as recreational pools mainly and will have a lot of pool features that the students will enjoy like a zip line.”

This 100,000 square foot facility will also house a three-court gymnasium and a fully equipped exercise fitness area that will replace the Wellness Depot.

“Two of the courts will be used for basketball and the third is multipurpose for volleyball and badminton. Then the student health services will be relocated in the wellness center and the counseling area will also be relocated there,” Bowen said.

All of these decisions have been made with GCSU students in mind and have been building up to the creation of a very useful multi-purpose wellness center.

“We wanted to wait until the students were back for the fall to do the groundbreaking ceremony and I think they will certainly be pleased to see what we have come up with,” Bowen said.

Posted by Joanna Sullivan on Aug 6 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.