Lilly Center construction due to continue until spring 2015

Friday, November 15, 2013
Banner Graphic/ERIC BERNSEE
Workmen continue renovation efforts on the east side of DePauw University's Lilly Physical Education and Recreation Center along South College Avenue. Target date for completion of new construction at the Lilly Center is August 2014, while renovation of the existing facility is expected to be finished by spring 2015.

While all eyes are on the 120th Monon Bell Classic football match-up this Saturday between DePauw University and Wabash College, significant developments in the future of DPU athletics continue on campus.

South College Avenue continues to be a hotbed of campus building activity as the Lilly Physical Education and Recreation Center gets both renovation work and new construction in a three-phase project under way since spring.

While F.A. Wilhelm Construction Co., Indianapolis, serves as the construction manager, numerous subcontractors are working on the site under the direction of Wilhelm officials.

Targeted completion date for new construction is August 2014, while renovation of the existing Lilly Center structure is due to be finished by spring 2015.

Phase One enhancements to the Lilly Center focus primarily on a 36,000-square-foot expansion, along with a renovation of existing space, designed to address university priorities related to fitness, training facilities and recreational programming.

A new two-story, 16,000-square-foot fitness center will provide the primary training facility for each of DePauw's varsity teams and for the campus community.

The new facility will more than triple the size of the existing fitness center. With the increased footprint, the facility will provide a venue fully capable of accommodating DePauw's integrated training model -- the university's preferred approach -- in which student-athletes train alongside non-athlete students.

Three multipurpose rooms -- primarily to support fitness classes, spin classes, and dance -- will be constructed in space vacated by the existing fitness center. The new spaces will triple the space currently available for these activities, and will help DePauw meet a growing student, faculty and staff demand for organized fitness classes.

Meanwhile, to accommodate future enhancements to the Lilly Center, the roof of the pool will be raised and replaced. Whereas the current roof slopes toward the east, a new, two-story roof will make it possible for the existing natatorium to be converted to a practice gymnasium upon the future construction of a new 50-meter pool in Phase Three of the Lilly Center project.

Renovation of space currently occupied by underutilized racquetball courts will more than double the office and laboratory space currently available for the Department of Kinesiology, a unit that has struggled to accommodate a significant increase in the number of majors, particularly given the discipline's heavy research focus.

New recreational locker rooms will be constructed within existing space vacated by the Kinesiology Department.

The expansion of the Lilly Center will enable expansion of spaces currently used for administrative activities, such as team meetings. Office spaces will also be renovated.

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