By Gwen Frost
Construction on Carver Gym began in August 2015 and, this August, was finally completed before school started. With the renovation of the Carver facility completed, fall quarter of 2017 will start out with a fresh new facility where for two years had only been a gated construction site. Carver will serve as another public building to house large volume academic activities, athletics and other campus-life activities. The Carver gym will house athletic events which the public is open to attend, something that had previously been lacking in campus life during the demolition and renovation.
The old facility did not meet earthquake requirements, and piping failures underneath the building dumped thousands of gallons of raw sewage, according to the university. Though contention in the student body was incited at the concept of using their tuition to pay for the facility, the majority of the funding was taken and approved by Washington State Legislature as part of the 2015-2017 state capital budget. The Carver Academic Renovation and Addition project was given $77.4 million from “state funds”.
Paul Cocke, director of the Office of Communications and Marketing, said that with the 150 to 200 workers on site each day since construction began in 2015, the facility has created about $55.6 million in economic impact in Whatcom County.
The project is receiving about “$4 million in institutional funds from the university to finish construction”, saidCocke, bringing the entire sum of the Carver project to about $81.5 million.
The Bellingham Herald reported in September 2015 that “Western will need to pay back $6 million,” but the Herald was not clear where the University would be getting the money to pay this sum back. The original estimate was at $73 million, and the building was also projected to be complete by Spring 2017. So though the facility was more expensive and created later than anticipated, it will also have crepes!
The new facility will have prioritized ADA access to classrooms, labs and offices throughout the building. The renovation also provides classrooms, computer labs, movement labs, instructional space, offices, support facilities and gymnasiums for Health and Human Development, Campus Recreation, and Athletics. The renovated Carver building contains six gender neutral restrooms. Among the new sustainable features of the new building include “LED lighting throughout the facility, a green roof at the second level, and motion sensor lighting control,” said Cocke.
Martín Prado, 2017 Western graduate,participated in the first graduation ceremony held at the renovated Carver.
“It was great to be back inside Carver. When I was a freshman I remember going there for basketball games and then they started re-construction,” Prado said.
Prado was one of the many students who got to experience Western’s old Carver facility, walk past the forklifts everyday, and then see the payoff of two years of lectures shouted over construction.
“Being able to walk into the new building and graduate there really felt like I came full circle with my time here at Western,” Prado said, which could easily be used on the brochure on the back of the fairy-tale underdog story that is the Carver facility.
Finally, he said something I could get behind: ”I couldn’t help but think though – what if just some of the money spent on the new facilities instead went to expanding the counseling center, which is much needed?”
Let’s just pretend for one second that Western claims to not have the funds to reopen a college for Ethnic Studies, even though Angela freakin’ Davis came to Western and said onstage to give the students the college. Let’s pretend it’s easy to get mental health support, and let’s pretend campus is accessible everyday for people with disabilities, year round. Even if we deceived ourselves as so, why does this scenario remind me of paying taxes for an overseas-war that I don’t want to be in?
If you aren’t on one of Western’s 15 Varsity sports
teams, then you may be unhappy to discover that not all of the $81 million dollar is open for every student; there are, in-fact, areas that are for student athletes specifically.
If you are a student athlete, get hyped to enjoy the Parberry Fitness Center, an academic skills lab, an improved training suite, lockers for over 300 student athletes, including team rooms for men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball, added gym space (a full additional gym), and a softball batting cage that drops from the ceiling in Gym A.
The new facility will also feature a dedicated Athletics Hall of Fame Room, made possible through a private donation, displaying the plaques of all 140 current members, Cocke said.With a shrine for those who can both run and read, student athleticism at Western might become something that the student body is aware of.
If you want to come see inside the mystery, a public open house will be Friday, Oct. 13, with a dedication at 1 p.m. The open house, refreshments and self-guided tours will be happening from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.
Not only will the new facility serve to improve the quality of life for student athletes exponentially, it will also include the Freshens Fresh Food Studio and Burrito Bar which will have had food options including but not limited to: smoothies, salads, international rice bowls, mac and cheese bowls, hand-crafted crepes, wraps and burritos. I will be doing pushups and eating mac and cheese in the student athlete hall of fame.