Image: Gary Wayne Gilbert. Click image to enlarge.

On January 10, the late afternoon sun highlighted the west facade of the University’s much anticipated four-story, 244,000-square-foot recreation facility, due to open this summer. Photographed from the top of Alumni Stadium, with the Flynn “Rec Plex” in the left foreground and the two-story Mods and eight-story Walsh Hall residences adjacent, the building displays several layers of construction—from the blue-and-silver air vapor barrier to the almost-finished bricks-and-granite treatment visible at two ends. Left of the arched main entrance (at center), white tarps enclose scaffolding, keeping the temperature inside at a level where masons can work and mortar can cure. In the photo’s lower right quadrant, are the cast stone pieces that will form trim throughout the structure. The building is L-shaped, with the longer segment measuring 355 feet, and the shorter 260 feet. The facility will be named in honor of Trustee Associate Margot C. Connell, whose gift of $50 million made construction possible.

—Thomas Cooper

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