New multipurpose center to be built on campus
UVM will be spending millions of dollars for an athletic event center five times the size of the current one.
The UVM board of trustees proposed the construction of two on-campus facilities to be built by 2022, earlier today.
The plan for the center will cost around $80 million, said Tom Gustafson, vice president for university relations. This is a decrease from the original budget of $200.
The change is in efforts to modernize Patrick gym, said Peter Bernhardt, a member of the UVM athletics board of advisers
Patrick Gym is an old, oversized high school gym that has not changed in years, he said.
One of the centers will be for sporting events, and the other for community and campus events, according to the announcement press release.
The new center will include an improved gym for the basketball teams, classrooms, study spaces and a juice bar, Gustafson said.
The facilities will be “student-centric,” he said.
Patrick Gym is going to be converted into a center for health and wellness, greatly increasing the space available.
From a contractor’s perspective, this project will save UVM a lot of money, he said.
The project is expected to begin in 2019 and be completed in 2022. The event center will be built first, and the health and wellness center construction will start after.
About 100 parking spaces will be lost as a result of construction, Gustafson said.
Athletic director Jeff Schulman said that while UVM’s aquatic facilities need work, they were not able to be included in this project.
He said that the University wants to keep Gutterson open for “as long as possible,” and that they hope to minimize the disruptions on students.
The finance and investment committee discussed fundraising options for the center Feb. 3.
