Press Release
Release Date: August 27, 2009
Contact: Pat Sisneros, Associate Vice President of Administration, 425-388-9026: psisneros@everettcc.edu
Construction Starts on EvCC Student Fitness and Health Center
EVERETT, WA – Everett Community College celebrated the start of construction on its new Student Fitness and Health Center Sept. 15.
The 49,800 square foot center will be located off Broadway, near the Everett Transit Center’s College Station and EvCC’s main campus. Construction started on the $19.5 million building in August. The gym is expected to open in 2010.
The Student Health and Fitness Center will include classrooms for physical education and health programs, a gym with retractable bleacher seating for 2,250, a cardio and free weight training room, a climbing wall, running track, juice and sandwich bar, a multi-purpose small gym and offices for faculty and staff.
The center also includes space for intercollegiate athletics and activities.
“The new gym is like a new beginning for the whole athletic program,” said EvCC Athletic Director Larry Walker.
While the gym is being built, classes will be held at Broadway Center, 840 N. Broadway, and at the former Rite Aid in the College Plaza Shopping Center. Practices are being held at a variety of locations and fields in the community.
The college’s new Health and Fitness Center will be funded through a combination of existing college funds and student fees. Students approved paying 40 percent of the cost of the gym through a fee approved by a student vote in spring 2007. The architect for the gym is SRG Partnership, Inc. of Seattle.
The Student Health and Fitness Center replaces the college’s 1958 gym, which was located at 1815 13th St. The gym and the surrounding land was purchased by Providence Everett Medical Center in 2007 as part of a land swap agreement that provides EvCC with property across the street from its Broadway Street campus at the College Plaza Shopping Center.
The 1958 gym was demolished in early August. EvCC salvaged part of the gym floor and 100 bricks to incorporate into the design of the new Student Health and Fitness Center to preserve a part of the college’s history. The 1958 gym had outdated and failing heating and plumbing systems, and its pool was condemned in 2002 because of a failing roof beam.
Throughout the decades, athletes at EvCC have competed in baseball, basketball, boxing, cheerleading, cross country, diving, football, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track, volleyball and more.
