Dillon Gymnasium gets a facelift

From its exterior, Dillon Gymnasium looks more like a castle than an athletic facility. What it boasts in aesthetic appeal, however, it lacks in functionality.

Constructed in the 1940s, when Princeton was still a male-only institution with a significantly smaller student body, Dillon Gym has undergone significant reconfigurations over the years. But it's still small in comparison to recreational facilities at similarly sized schools. Recent improvements have sought to enhance the building's use and make the most of a dated facility.

The campus recreation department submitted a "wish list" of projects, prioritized by immediacy of need, and most of these projects received full funding.

"We worked with folks in facilities management," Associate Director of Athletics David Leach said. "We were given an opportunity to do some work within [the] existing Dillon [Gym] on some of the needed priority items, and we had a few that we thought were pretty significant."

The most prominent of these improvements was the refinishing of the floor of Dillon's four-court basketball arena that took place this summer. Once home to Princeton's varsity basketball team and greats like Bill Bradley, Dillon Gym now serves as a venue for recreational players and youth leagues, as well as for the men's varsity wrestling team and the women's and men's varsity volleyball teams. Decades of use, however, had taken their toll on the slippery and discolored floor.

Refinishing the floors to a lighter color and installing new bleachers of matching stain, along with adding a new Princeton mural on the wall and new logos on the floor, brightened the formerly dingy space. For this improvement in particular, timing proved very difficult, as the gym had to be closed for an extended period of time during the renovations.

"We can't shut the gym floor down for three or four weeks in the middle of the academic year," said Evan Moorhead, assistant director of campus recreation and facilities. "We have to schedule around both the academic year and our own programming, as well as working with the schedule of different vendors."

Vinyl divider screens will also be installed this semester, replacing the old mesh screen between each of the courts.

"[We can then] subdivide the courts when we have intramurals or volleyball or things like that where we need to wall off a certain section of the court," Moorhead said.

Thanks to recent improvements, Stephens Fitness Center, the most heavily used portion of Dillon Gym, now enjoys digital radio and will soon be home to new equipment including a new stretch mat, five new elliptical machines (to replace three older ellipticals and two stairmasters) and new stationary and free-weight equipment.

"The items downstairs that we're trading in, we've had since we opened [Stephens] in January 2000," Assistant Director of Campus Recreation and Fitness Matt Brzycki said. "[Weight equipment] doesn't get pounded on the way cardio stuff does. The cardio, depending upon what it is, [lasts] three to five years."

Dillon's fitness activity rooms also have benefited from improvements, both cosmetic and functional. In an attempt to accommodate an increasingly popular spinning program, the former spinning room and massage therapy rooms switched homes. The new spinning room now has 50 percent more space as well as higher ceilings, new flooring and better air circulation.

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Also, the multipurpose and group fitness rooms upstairs were fitted with substantial walk-in closets to hold equipment and sunshades to reduce afternoon glare. Plans are currently underway to further improve air ventilation and circulation in the locker rooms.

Beyond these more obvious improvements, less noticeable safety improvements were also recently completed. The railings on the stairs leading to the group fitness rooms have been custom-fitted with a safety screen.

Though seemingly small, this improvement will now provide a much safer passage up the stairs for the hundreds of children who participate at summer camp at Dillon. Bars were also fitted across windows in the gym, martial arts room and elsewhere to prevent accidental falls.

In the interest of safety, a wireless PA system is now being installed in the building and should be completed by the end of this semester. Though the Virginia Tech tragedy prompted many improvements in emergency preparedness on campuses across the country, the idea of installing a PA system in Dillon Gym had been in the works for quite some time. A PA system would allow the gym to make announcements, such as an early facility closing, as well as providing security in times of emergency.

In spite of these substantive improvements, the ability of Dillon to accommodate the needs of students is inherently limited by the architecture of the building.

"This building has a lot of character. It's an older building. It certainly has a lot of charm as a building, but what we don't have in this building is the functionality," Leach said. "So, I think a more functional space is something that we'd be able to do more with."

A major overhaul and renovation may eventually be the only way to fully meet user demands. Until then, students will at least have an increasingly modernized and well-equipped space.