Archive for February, 2011

Above is a video of this month’s topping-out ceremony for the Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center at Abilene Christian University. If you’re having trouble seeing this video, you can watch it here.

Dr. Nicki Rippee

Dr. Nicki Rippee feels your pain.

If you’re gymphobic, if you feel intimidated by the sight of perfectly toned bodies working out on machines you barely understand, or if you simply don’t know where to begin, Rippee’s been there.

“This is what I do,” says the Abilene Christian University professor of exercise science and health, “and there are some fitness centers I’ve been in, and I feel intimidated.”

That’s why, as she both began and ended an interview about the overall wellness philosophy embodied in ACU’s new Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center, she emphasized five words:

“This is not a gym.

“This is not a fitness center,” Rippee said. “That’s not our goal. We have a much broader path. This will be a place where people could integrate all the parts of what we call wellness.”

So what is wellness?

More »

You’d be hard-pressed to find many relics of Viking heritage in West Texas, but for the next few days, one sits atop the newest building at Abilene Christian University.

In a ceremony born from ancient Scandinavians’ love for evergreen trees and carried through the generations to America by the immigrant ironworkers who helped build New York’s tallest skyscrapers, ACU and its contractor celebrated Friday the installation of the top-most piece of steel on a sprawling new wellness center.

“Mark this date,” said Dr. Jean-Noel Thompson, vice president and dean of Student Life. “Feb. 18, 2011, is one to remember. Today marks an important milestone in the life of the Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center.”

Crews lifted the tree into place using the massive crane that has dominated the Abilene skyline for months — and which has captivated campus residents as it has lifted beam after beam of steel into place on the $21 million facility — as members of the ACU community, ranging from students to members of the Board of Trustees, applauded during what is known in the construction industry as a “topping-out” ceremony.

The topping-out beam itself was visible from the parking lot in front of the construction site, its purple hue standing out from its neighbors at the top of the structure’s east face. The beam spent nearly a week on the campus mall earlier this month, allowing hundreds of students, faculty and staff to sign their names before crews hoisted it to its place 35 feet above what will soon be a new leisure pool in the facility. The signatures, however, will soon be invisible; the beam is set to be covered with fireproofing material and buried within the walls of the wellness center, which is scheduled to open in late August or early September.

Phil Boone, vice president of Advancement, introduces four members of ACU's Board of Trustees, all of them among the lead donors to to the wellness center (l to r): Dale Brown, Billy Busch, Rick Wessell and April Anthony. Dr. Jean-Noel Thompson, vice president and dean of Student Life, and Students' Association president Samuel Palomares look on.

The brief ceremony also recognized some of the facility’s lead donors to date: April Anthony, Dale Brown, Billy Bush and Rick Wessell, members of the Board of Trustees who collectively have given more than $8 million to the project.

“We’re inching closer to going over the $15 million mark” in funds raised for the facility, said Phil Boone, vice president of Advancement. “Our next topping out ceremony will come when we go over full funding.”

The 113,000-square-foot expansion of the Gibson Health and Physical Education Center has been enormously complex, said Brian Cook, vice president and Texas division manager for HOAR Construction, the contractor for the project. Cook cited as an example the pouring of a concrete base above the new pool at the top of the building, 35 feet above ground.

Thus far, crews have expended more than 100,000 man-hours in constructing the facility, Cook said.

“We have had no major incidents or injuries,” he said, “and that’s an amazing success so far.”

The evergreen tree — which Thompson said he sees as a symbol of “the life God gives us,” as well as the university’s mission to “nourish mind, body and soul” through the wellness center — ultimately will be planted on campus, leading Thompson to address ACU’s grounds crews.

“Do all you can to keep the tree alive,” he joked, “or it will kill my analogy.”

Photos by Gary Rhodes.

Crews have begun installing yellow sheetrock over the fireproofed steel beams of the center's southwest corner.

The Feb. 1 snowstorm, which shut down most of Abilene for four days, had its affects on the Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center, as well.

Work on the facility was set back four days because of the icy conditions, pushing the projected opening into the first week of September, said Dr. Jean-Noel Thompson, vice president and dean of Student Life.

“Our goal is to have the certificate of occupancy in mid August,” Thompson said. “In terms of moving in for a turn-key opening, we’re looking at the end of August or the first week of September.”

The original completion date in ACU’s contract with the site’s contractors was Aug. 1, with leeway built in for weather delays to push that deeper into the summer. Thus far, weather — including this month’s historic ice, snow and bitter cold — has delayed the project between nine and 13 days, Thompson said.

With warmer, sunnier days here again, construction has resumed its seemingly frenetic pace. Crews continue to erect steel beams all over the facility in hopes of placing the last beam before the end of the month. Here is a brief update on where construction stands as of Wednesday:

Northwest corner

• Medical and Counseling Center for Care
• Near Teague Special Events Center

Steel framing has begun forming the facility’s medical space, with fireproofing materials following shortly behind. Work on cast stone and brick continues in this area, which remains the furthest along — at least by appearances from the exterior.

Southwest corner

• Basketball gym, running track
• Near Moody Coliseum

Work continues on installing bricks and cast stone, and the second floor, which includes the elevated running track, continues to take shape.

Southeast corner

• Main entrance
• Near McGlothlin Campus Center and Chapel on the Hill

Crews continue to erect steel framing in this area.

East-central face

• Pools, bouldering wall, offices
• Faces ACU Drive and the Hunter Welcome Center

Steel framing continues to go up here, capping with the placement Friday of the top-most beam in the facility, the reason for tomorrow’s topping out ceremony. Crews continue to cover the steel with fireproofing material, the grayish white substance that now covers many of the beams visible at the site. Structural concrete for the second floor will soon be poured, and crews have begun installing drywall in what will be the facility’s classrooms and faculty/staff offices.

Northeast corner

• Locker rooms, showers, racquetball courts,
• Near Eager Tennis Pavilion

Steel is going up in this area, as well, with roof installation to begin shortly.

The topping out ceremony — the moment when the top-most beam in the Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center will be added to the steel skeleton that sprawls east of Moody Coliseum — will take place Friday.

The short ceremony will be emceed by Dr. Jean-Noel Thompson, vice president and dean of student life. Attendees are expected to include ACU’s president, Dr. Phil Schubert; members of the Board of Trustees, including the facility’s lead donors, April Anthony (no relation) and Dale Brown; and the facility’s namesake, chancellor and former president Dr. Royce Money with his wife, Pam.

Festivities are scheduled to begin at 11:40 a.m., giving interested students time to make their way from Chapel.

The highlight of the ceremony will be the placement of a ceremonial tree atop the beam, which was signed by ACU students, faculty and staff over several days last week. The tree eventually will be planted on campus. We’ll bring you photos from the ceremony shortly after its scheduled completion at noon Friday.

Dr. Kerri Hart, assistant professor of exercise science and health, has for a decade been the driving force behind the construction of a wellness center for the ACU campus. When the Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center opens, Hart will take on new duties as the center’s director of training and fitness programming. We sat down with Dr. Hart to talk about her new position and what it entails.

What will your new job entail?

I get to be in charge of the trainers that are on the weight or cardio floor. I get to be in charge of the group exercise classes and decide which ones we offer. Basically, it means I get to be in charge of the programming for the building.

Are these academic classes, or more activity-type extracurricular offerings?

I’ll decide what activities classes, what educational sessions we offer in the evenings.

The academic side is intertwined. I will keep a part of my position in the Exercise Science Department and act as a liaison. There would be some nonacademic classes and some academic classes. It’s a unique position; that’s what makes it exciting.

What are you doing to prepare?

It’s almost like going in and filling in an outline. We’ve got the outline; now we’re just going in and filling in the details of it.

We’ve got the equipment ordered, from as small as stretching mats to as large as treadmills. I’m working very closely with Joel Swedlund, [who currently manages the Campus Center but will move over to perform a similar role in the SRWC]. We’re working on a policies and procedures manual, we need to decide on the hours. We’ll begin to hire student workers and train them. A lot of that will happen this summer. We have a plan for that.

What has prepared me for that was my doctoral work, where we had to do projects like this all the time. One of our assessments was we had to design a policies and procedures manual. Our work was to plan a facility like this. That is a blessing and a benefit.

You, Joel and the facility’s executive director will have a dual responsibility to Student Life and to the Exercise Science and Health Department. How will that relationship work?

The idea is for it to be totally collaborative effort between the three of us. We’ll fall under Student Life. This semester, I’m transitioning into Student Life.

Joel and I are revisiting other university recreation centers. There are two that stand out in our mind, TCU and Texas State. Texas State was built by the same architects; When you go into the Texas State building, it’s set up the way ours will be. Even though theirs is larger because it’s a large university, it’s set up very similarly.

We’re going to visit there, we’re going to a similar wellness facility that’s using the technology from [SRWC vendor] TechnoGym.

After all this preparation, what will you do when the building opens?

The first year is going to just be learning. Any new building, from learning about the sound system to pool temperatures and atmosphere, there’s a lot you can’t know until that building is there and you’re living in it.

Curtis Dickson, c. 1968

Dr. Curtis Dickson was among those signing their names to the “topping-out” beam on the campus mall Friday. He also signed the name of Dr. Dwain Hart.

It’s only fitting that these two men, legends within the ACU Department of Exercise Science and Nutrition, be among those adding their marks to the Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center.

Hart was the first chair of the department, and Dickson was his successor. Together, the two men led the Exercise Science division and department a combined 31 years, 1960-91.

In the fall of 1967, when Dickson was a new faculty member set to teach swimming once the new Gibson Health and Physical Education Center opened, the two men took a tour of the new facility.

Dr. Dwain Hart in the early 1970s.

As the men roamed the dirt where soon crews would install the new swimming pool where Dickson would teach classes, they each placed a coin in the soil.

Forty-two years later, the coins presumably are still there, beneath the same pool, which is being renovated — but not replaced — as part of the Wellness Center construction.

It seemed appropriate,” Dickson wrote last weekend, “that I should add our two names to the beam which would be placed above the new pool.”

Later this week, we’ll post an interview with Hart’s daughter, Dr. Kerri Hart, who not only was the driving force behind the Student Recreation and Wellness Center but will be the facility’s program director when it opens in August.

A major winter storm forced the closure of ACU for four straight days last week, the first time in university history that’s ever happened. A related water leak led to server outages, as well, and the combination of those events led to a lack of updates on this blog. We’ll get back to work updating you about the Royce and Pam Money Student Recreation and Wellness Center later this week.

In the meantime, check out this post from the excellent ACU Today blog about how those living on campus weathered the weather.