Last week, the class took a facility tour of the Perry Field House on campus. The field house is a relatively new building on campus, built in 1992 as an indoor track facility and multi-purpose area for the campus and surrounding community. The building is used for various purposes, such as indoor track and field competitions, collegiate football practices, intramural athletics, and even conferences or expositions.
The layout of the facility is easy to navigate and very wide-open. Walking through the lobby in the entrance, it is clear where you should be going because the two main rooms are visible from that point. The information desk is located directly through the doors and one must pass by the desk in order to enter either of the two rooms. One criticism of where the desk is located is that it is too far from the entrance and if there is a line or the attendant is busy, it is easy for someone unauthorized to sneak in the facility. For safety concerns during large events, it would be recommended to close that gap and put tables near the entrance for check-ins.
Along with the layout, the general aesthetics of the facility are appealing. The turf room looks very cool and still modern even though it is nearly 20 years old. The basketball courts still look somewhat new and the colors of the facility fit with the campus. Unlike the Rec Center on campus, the Perry Field House has aged pretty well over the years even though it is about a decade younger.
Another concern for the facility that was obvious through the tour is the lack of storage. The builders of the facility did not take into account how much equipment would be used for the facility. The walls in the basketball court area was lined with equipment that could be potentially dangerous to people. There are signs posted and people know that the equipment is clearly off-limits, however the equipment is distracting to the whole building. It looks bad and makes the facility look cluttered and unorganized. During track and field events it could be especially dangerous because the equipment is so close to the running areas. Also, for larger events where additional space is vital, the access equipment takes up that extra space and can lead to a crowded feel among the crowd.
Finally, I felt that building could use at least one more bathroom facility. I did not get a chance to look into the bathrooms but as far as i could see there was only one bathroom facility. The facility can hold a lot of people during large events and those people have to go somewhere. It seemed to me through my observations during the tour that in the case of a large event, the bathroom facilities are probably over-worked with too many people, long lines, and trouble staying clean.
Overall I enjoyed the facility and I loved knowing that is is nearly 20 years old but it still feels like a new building on campus. The building has aged well and is still a staple on campus for students to use for some sort of function during their 4 years. It may have its faults, but for a 20 year old building, those problems were probably not thought of at the time and are hard to fix at this point in time during the building’s history.
For a super awesome video of the facility, click on the following link (couldn’t get the video to embed at the moment so I’ll have to go old-school for now): Super awesome Perry Field House video