Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

Niagara University Completes Recreation Center Renovations

  • By Matt Jones
  • 01/26/23

Niagara University in Lewiston, N.Y., recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of $11.5 million in upgrades to the Kiernan Recreation Center, according to a news release. Renovations included an 18,000-square-foot, two-story addition that plays home to a weight room, dance studios, sports medicine suite, storage, locker rooms, team meeting spaces, and administrative space.

“The renovated Kiernan Center will provide our students, and the entire community, with a facility that anchors our commitment to excellence and touches every aspect of a student’s life on our campus,” said the Rev. James J. Maher, C.M., Niagara University President. “The Kiernan Center enhances the living-learning environment for our students whether through academic programming, intramural and club sports, or as a place for students to maintain their physical well-being through individual or group exercise.”

The new facility features an indoor track, free weights, a swimming pool, basketball courts, an aerobic dance area, and other weight-training equipment. The facility sees about 2,000 individual users each week, the news release reports. It also includes academic space for the College of Education’s Special Olympics programming, theater students, sports management, and R.O.T.C. training.

Other renovations include replacing the front gym’s floor, renovations to Scaffidi gym, and infrastructure enhancements like the pool area’s filtration system, according to the news release.

Funding for the project came via a $1-million grant from the New York State Higher Education Capital (HECap) matching program, other private donations, and university investments. The university partnered with LeChase Construction Services on the project.

About the Author

Matt Jones is senior editor of Spaces4Learning. He can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • Designing for Every Mind

    Learning environments have the power to shape not just what students know, but who they become. When a school is designed with genuine empathy—for the full range of ways students think, sense, and engage with the world—it becomes more than a building. It becomes a catalyst for growth, confidence, and belonging. That is the animating idea behind neurodiverse design, and it is one that is transforming how more architects and designers are thinking about school design.

  • Photo credit - Chuck Coates

    Florida District Modernizes Central Energy Plants at Two High Schools

    Flagler Schools, a public school district in Flagler County, Fla., recently partnered with Matern Professional Engineering to modernize the central energy plants at two of its high schools, according to a news release. The project is part of a larger, district-wide effort to reduce energy costs and operational expenses.

  • How a Portable Sink Helped an Art Classroom Run More Smoothly

    Classroom design decisions can have outsized effects on instructional time and safety at schools juggling mismatched infrastructure, strict budgets, and crowded schedules — particularly in the arts. Between spilled paint and dirty brushes, art classes run smoother with a sink in the studio. But many schools don’t have a sink in every art classroom.

  • California Middle School Breaks Ground on Major Renovation Project

    The Hillsborough City School District (HCSD) in Hillsborough, Calif., recently began construction on new multipurpose and administration facilities for Crocker Middle School, according to a news release.