Pottruck renovations to be completed by June 27

Pottruck Health and Fitness Center is getting a workout itself.

Since Penn’s commencement ceremony on May 13, the first, third and fourth floors of Pottruck have undergone renovations. The first floor renovation was finished last week and part of the third and fourth floors are currently closed for renovations. The entire renovation of Pottruck will be finished by June 27.

According to Amy Wagner, the director of recreation at Pottruck, the renovation is mainly about upgrading equipment, especially “Life Fitness” and “Expresso Bikes”.

The new Life Fitness Equipment is going to have access to internet and cable TV.

“We didn’t have the wiring for cable TV or internet access, so on the first floor we [had] to take out the floor and add electricity, cable TV and cable for internet access so that it [could] be fed to each [piece of] equipment,” Wagner said. She also noted that the same renovations will occur for the third and fourth floors.

But after the renovations, Wagner said that “people can watch TV, [or] they can hook up their iPad and iPhone to watch their own content” on the new equipment.

The Expresso Bikes will introduce new interactive features for people working out at the gym.

“[The bikes] will allow you to compete against real people [through] a gaming feature,” Wagner said. “You can choose an opponent riding the bike from anywhere. There is a leader board which shows across the country who has logged in the most miles, and things like that.”

Wagner said that the motivation behind these renovations were to make sure that Pottruck has “the best facilities available on the market.”

“Our goal is to offer the best facilities and recreation programs that we can offer,” she added.

Read about Meyerson Hall’s new studio and auditorium renovations

College junior Mari Meas enjoys the new treadmill features.

“I found the first floor renovations are amazing,” she said. “It is more spacious [and] treadmills are a lot more advanced. There are actual drills and courses that you can watch as you are running, compared to just watching your time. ”

Although Meas normally runs outside of the gym, once she discovered the new equipment, she decided to “[come] to the gym more often.”

However, rising Engineering sophomore Katie Rolin seemed disappointed because she used to lift weights on the third floor but she can’t do it anymore because the weight room is currently under renovation.

Rising College senior Anand Muthusamy thinks that although “renovations during the summer are obviously preferable” than having the gym shut down facilities during the school year “[closing facilities for the summer] means more for people who actually workout frequently.”

The Penn Bookstore is also being remodeled this summer

However, other Pottruck visitors were not affected much by the renovations. Rising College junior Jordan Driskill said that he “didn’t know there were renovations happening.”

Wagner noted that this is the type of atmosphere Pottruck wished to encourage during renovations.

“We want to disrupt as little as possible,” she said. “If we did that in September, it would affect a lot of people’s workouts.”

“[The renovations are] really just bringing the things that people are doing on their iPods or iPads and putting them right onto the equipment,” Wagner said. “I think the students are going to like it.”

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