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July 12, 2001

Works begins on Bradford sports center

Construction crews have started work on the new Bradford campus sports center, which is expected to be completed by the fall 2002.

The $9.84 million project will include a 50,000 square-foot addition to the current sports center, renovations to the 25,000 square-foot facility and a new parking lot.

The new addition will house a state-of-the-art fitness center, faculty and staff offices, a gymnasium for intercollegiate athletics, locker rooms, a main lobby area and a six-lane, 25-yard NCAA Division III regulation swimming pool.

The facility also will house two sports medicine classrooms, a sports medicine physiology lab and an athletic training room, which will enable Pitt-Bradford to expand its sports medicine major, according to Bridgett Passauer, director of the sport and exercise science program.

Six new courses with an exercise physiology concentration and clinical courses focusing on athletic training have been added to the curriculum, Passauer said. "We couldn't have expanded the major without the addition of the physiology lab and the expansion of the sports center," she said.

Once new construction is complete, the current sports center will be renovated. Workers will install a new roof, a synthetic floor for the existing gymnasium, which will be used for recreational activities, and exterior doors. The auxiliary gym located at the rear of the sports center will be renovated and used as a dance studio and aerobics area.

"We're very excited that the new sports center is becoming a reality," said Richard E. McDowell, Bradford campus president.

"The new facility will help us improve and expand both academic and athletic programs and enable us to offer more activities for our students and the community. This is great news for the current and future students at Pitt-Bradford and all the people in the community who will benefit from this facility."

Architects for the project are Burt Hill Kosar Rittlemann Associates of Pittsburgh. The general contractor is Welliver Mcquire Inc. of Elmira, N.Y.

The new sports center is the first of three construction projects at Bradford. Blaisdell Hall, which will serve as the fine arts building, is under architectural design and the project to expand and renovate the Frame-Westerberg Commons is moving toward the design phase.


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