The Athletic and Fitness Center as seen from 10th Avenue
The
Athletic and Fitness Center (also known as simply the
Fitness Center, the
New PEC, or the
New Darby) is Grinnell College's primary athletics complex. Meant to replace the aging
PEC (and having already replaced the even older
Darby), the new Fitness Center is a multi-floored facility with a weight-lifting and cardiovascular equipment room, the new performance gym, Darby Gymnasium, as well as an auxiliary gym. Designed by César Pelli (also responsible for the
JRC and the
Bucksbaum Center for the Arts), the complex makes use of copious amounts of natural light, as well as earth tones provided by wood and brick walls and ceilings.
Pelli-esque earth tones and natural light
Phase II of the Fitness Center's construction include a "natatorium" (featuring an Olympic-sized swimming pool) immediately to its west as well as an attached, massive indoor field house to its south, roughly tripling the size of the current facility. Plans and renderings of the Phase II construction, due to be completed in the summer of 2010, can be found
here.
Future geothermally-heated natatorium
