New indoor campus recreation & sports center

[CAS]

It appears Cornell has completed fundraising & will begin construction on a new $25 million indoor facility.  This should greatly benefit lacrosse, football, & the general student population.

[Ken711]

It appears Cornell has completed fundraising & will begin construction on a new $25 million indoor facility.  This should greatly benefit lacrosse, football, & the general student population.

Great news to hear!  Have they settled on the location? I heard before there was talk of a campus location other the sports complex on Game Farm road that was being considered.

[CAS]

Believe Cornell was considering two on-campus sites - don't know what was ultimately decided.  The project is included in Cornell's 2021-2 capital budget, & mentioned in a recent Andy fundraising email.

[upprdeck]

yeah. I havent seen it confirmed if the site they chose has been officially announced yet and they stuck with where I was told.  there really are not many options on campus anyway.

[Ken711]

I wonder if there is space for it next to Weill Hall.

[upprdeck]

I have a couple mtgs  this week and ask if the decision has become public.

it will be interesting to see the result of parking changes with so many employees being asked to not come back to campus.. parking has driven a bunch of decisions over the years but it may free up some space in places never planned on before..  something like the crescent lot is a huge chunk of campus. but the reality is you could expand the oxley lot, which isnt all that much further, and do something on the crescent lot one day.

if the master plan to move the baseball field and the Robison ALumni field. Dodson field and Berman field is followed then it would make sense to move an IPF out to game farm with all of those fields and that frees up campus for several new buildings.

[Ken711]

I have a couple mtgs  this week and ask if the decision has become public.

it will be interesting to see the result of parking changes with so many employees being asked to not come back to campus.. parking has driven a bunch of decisions over the years but it may free up some space in places never planned on before..  something like the crescent lot is a huge chunk of campus. but the reality is you could expand the oxley lot, which isnt all that much further, and do something on the crescent lot one day.

if the master plan to move the baseball field and the Robison ALumni field. Dodson field and Berman field is followed then it would make sense to move an IPF out to game farm with all of those fields and that frees up campus for several new buildings.

Thanks, I'm interested if you find anything about the building site. I won't be surprised if it turns out to be the Game Farm complex given the new baseball stadium will be built there.

[billhoward]

If a fit-rec center is intended for students and if Cornell wants a campus that's like Princeton or Dartmouth only bigger (that is, walking distance for many things not just classes and libraries), a facility should be near where student dorms are. That's not out by Pine Tree Road / Game Farm Road.

The beginning of the end was when Lower Alumni Field, behind Teagle Hall, across from Barton Hall, became Comstock Hall in the mid-1970s. It should have gotten artificial turf and nicer stands. I'd rather see A.D. White House and the Big Red Barn put to a better use that is six stories tall before more on-campus sports facilities go away.

It'd be nice if students and athlete-students used the same building but if it's way to hell and gone, students would rather have expanded facilities near North and West Campus dorms.

Is there a time when replacements for Lynah and Schoellkopf move off campus? Perhaps the new football facility is named Archer Field in honor of Cornell's longest-tenured football coach.

Ironic that the Ivy's most rural campus other than Dartmouth suffers from sprawl.

[David Harding]

Pure speculation:

Looking at the campus master plan from a few years ago, I see some overlap with these words, but it's not obviously the same thing.  The master plan shows some athletics and recreation building as am option in the space between Friedman Wrestling Center and Upper Alumni Field, with the north side aligned with the north side of Bartels.  By eyeball the footprint is a little bigger than Friedman, but not much.  Friedman cost $4.5M 20 years ago.  

The master plan also envisions filling all of Upper Alumni Field from the Freidman Center east with academic, administrative, and residential buildings.  They say explicitly "Provide residential amenities in base buildings (e.g. dining, fitness and recreation facilities)"  The grass that remains is rebranded "Alumni Quad".

[CAS]

Again, as of a year ago, the two sites under consideration for this building were both on campus.

[Ken711]

If a fit-rec center is intended for students and if Cornell wants a campus that's like Princeton or Dartmouth only bigger (that is, walking distance for many things not just classes and libraries), a facility should be near where student dorms are. That's not out by Pine Tree Road / Game Farm Road.

The beginning of the end was when Lower Alumni Field, behind Teagle Hall, across from Barton Hall, became Comstock Hall in the mid-1970s. It should have gotten artificial turf and nicer stands. I'd rather see A.D. White House and the Big Red Barn put to a better use that is six stories tall before more on-campus sports facilities go away.

It'd be nice if students and athlete-students used the same building but if it's way to hell and gone, students would rather have expanded facilities near North and West Campus dorms.

Is there a time when replacements for Lynah and Schoellkopf move off campus? Perhaps the new football facility is named Archer Field in honor of Cornell's longest-tenured football coach.

Ironic that the Ivy's most rural campus other than Dartmouth suffers from sprawl.

Archer Field?  I almost spit out my breakfast cereal.  :-O  The field hockey field next to Weill Hall or the shot put and discus field at the far end of upper alumni field seem like the only spaces left that would fit on campus besides a site at Game Farm road.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I guess I don't understand the big deal about moving the athletic facilities to Game Farm Rd.  

I look at Lehigh where all their sports facilities (Football, basketball, lacrosse, etc.) are on the other side of the mountain from the main campus.  It's a distance of 3-4 miles and it works just fine. They have a bus service that runs several times per hour on weekdays and les frequent on weekends (although I believe they add buses on game days).  Plenty of parking for tailgating, too.

[billhoward]

One change over the arc of old-alums' lifetimes -- boy, that street name makes us sound rural -- is that there are few weekday afternoon sporting events now. If we play Syracuse in lax on a Tuesday, it's Tuesday night. Fewer times when someone might stroll over from the last afternoon class to see a sporting event played 5 minutes by foot from the Arts Quad.

I'm curious if we might see Cornell housing or private apartments develop near the new athletic facilities.

Yes, Lehigh's athletic fields are a hike from main campus. But Lehigh's Bethlehem is 2-3 times bigger than Ithaca and the campus is closer to the main part of town, so maybe they got landlocked early on.

[Al DeFlorio]

I guess I don't understand the big deal about moving the athletic facilities to Game Farm Rd.  

I look at Lehigh where all their sports facilities (Football, basketball, lacrosse, etc.) are on the other side of the mountain from the main campus.  It's a distance of 3-4 miles and it works just fine. They have a bus service that runs several times per hour on weekdays and les frequent on weekends (although I believe they add buses on game days).  Plenty of parking for tailgating, too.

Yale has the same situation.  Outdoor athletics venues are remote from campus.

[Trotsky]

As the NC$$ implodes and all that sweet sports money starts going to the athletes instead of the schools, I wonder whether the bubble on sports spending will finally burst.

An indoor campus recreation & sports center serves about 2% of the entire student population.  Students would be far better served if everything spent on this kind of stuff went to lowering the cost of tuition, room, and board.