News

SOPHOMORE BAILEY JOHNSTON can’t wait to get out of the basement of Smith Memorial Student Union, where he now works for PSU’s Outdoor Program.

Johnston is one of many students looking forward to the new light-filled Academic and Student Recreation Center expected to break ground this summer and open its doors in 2009 for swimming, dancing, basketball, badminton, the Outdoor Program, and other recreation.

The center will be built on the site of the Portland Center for Advanced Technology at 1800 SW Sixth Ave. The University purchased the soon-to-be demolished building in 1983, which until recently housed engineering programs.

Johnston wants the new center to be a place for social interaction as well as physical activity.

“I hope to see students create a new sense of community and come to campus not just for classes, but to hang out in this building too,” he says.

Alex Accetta, PSU coordinator of campus recreation, has the same hopes. When he talks about fitness, intramural, and club sports on campus, he is thinking of statistics that point to higher retention rates and increased academic success for students who get involved. And a new facility will make this possible, especially because the Peter Stott Center—PSU’s physical education building—is so over-crowded and overbooked.

“We do a good job of scheduling for the resources we now have,” says Accetta, “but the Stott Center was built when our student population was only 8,000. Today we are 25,000.”

For example, badminton is played on squash courts, soccer players practice on racquetball courts, table tennis players meet in hallways, and the one dance instruction area on campus is booked all day, every day.

The new center will allow students to swim, lift weights, get on a treadmill, or play sports when they choose, says Accetta, and students have shown that they want this. They’ve been involved for years in planning the center, and it is their student fees—approximately $35 million total—that will pay for it.

Funding for the five-story building is also coming from an innovative mix of retail and community tenants. Retail businesses on the first floor and offices for the Oregon Chancellor of Higher Education and the city of Portland’s archives are planned. New classroom space is another important part of the facility.

The Outdoor Program will carry on its 40 years of group adventures—hikes, backpacking trips, and water and snow excursions—from its new first-floor space.

Johnston came to PSU because of the program, and as its team-building outreach coordinator he is excited that it will have more of a presence. “It will now be in a building that stands out and welcome students,” he says.

For more information on the Academic and Student Recreation Center, visit www.campusrec.pdx.edu.

A way to get there

The Academic and Student Recreation Center project coincides with construction of a new MAX light rail line just outside its doors. The center and the adjacent PSU Urban Plaza will become a transit hub for light rail, streetcar, buses, and pedestrians. PSU is already the top transit destination in downtown Portland. The new "Green Line" will connect PSU to Union Station and Union Station to Clackamas county. The downtown portion will include:

• Trains running every five minutes during the day
• New stations at southwest College Street and Sixth Avenue, southwest College Street and Fifth Avenue, and southwest Montgomery Street and Sixth Avenue
  
• New artwork, transit shelters, and street furniture
• Sleek new train cars
• A turnaround loop just south of Southwest Jackson Street