A new cycling studio will open Saturday in Regents Drive Garage, accommodating space lost in Cole Field House during the complex’s renovation.
The studio is part of a 3500-square-foot space, which includes a multipurpose room opening Monday. The spaces are on the ground floor of the garage and will be available to students and faculty with use of university ID, said David Flumbaum, University Recreation and Wellness assistant director for facilities and projects.
While the studios were set to open at the beginning of spring semester, Facilities Management encountered issues with implementing the mechanical and electrical systems such as sprinklers because of the high ceilings, said Bill Olen, interim executive director of planning and construction. Initial construction of the Regents fitness facility began in September.
The cycling studio will have 24 bikes, including one for the instructor, and will offer classes Monday to Saturday. All programs that used to take place in Cole Field House’s cycling studio will now be in Regents, fitness program coordinator Tami Bergan said.
“We think over time we may be able to add more bikes if there is enough room to do that,” she said.
RecWell will hold cycling and yoga classes back-to-back in Regents on Tuesdays and Thursdays in an effort to imitate the “cycleyo” classes other fitness centers on the campus offered in previous years, Bergan said. Previous classes have consisted of both a 45-minute cycle session followed by 30 minutes of yoga, but the Regents classes will not require people to attend both, Bergan said.
Fitness classes such as Bodypump, Zumba, HIIT and Bodycombat will be offered in the multipurpose studio as well. When construction in Cole Field House began about a year ago, RecWell never found a temporary location for this studio space, Flumbaum said.
“We reduced the amount of classes we would have been offering had we had that space,” Flumbaum said. “Now they’re going to be reviving those classes and scheduling more group fitness activities just like we had been doing before.”
RecWell had requested to have multiple showers in the space while the original contract only accounted for one shower, increasing the budget from an initial $754,000 estimate to $937,000, Olen said. The space now offers three individual shower and changing rooms, including an ADA-compliant bathroom and shower, which can be used as a gender inclusive space as well, Flumbaum said.
“We felt it was important to make sure we have bathroom space for everyone,” said Flumbaum.
The cycling studio and multipurpose room will be available to groups and club teams that want to schedule private fitness classes, Flumbaum said. Organizations can reserve space in the multipurpose room for meetings as well, as they have been able to do in other fitness centers on the campus, Flumbaum said.
The cycling studio and the multipurpose room are just two of the facilities RecWell is relocating because of renovations in Cole, which is slated to open in early 2019. The outdoor tennis courts next to Lot 1, for example, will be built in the parking lot next to Eppley Recreation Center and will open for the fall 2017 semester, Flumbaum said.
