The two main ongoing construction projects on campus are both set to be completed on time, project planners say.
The completion of construction of the Center for Film Studies and the addition to Freeman Athletic Center will bring with it a 410-seat movie theater and a bright, airy exercise area with plenty of elliptical machines, among other perks.
The film center being built on Washington Street behind the Center for the Arts is expected to be completed April 23. The center will feature a glass-enclosed lobby, offices for all of department’s faculty, specialized classrooms and production space at a cost of $4 million, according to Project Manager Alan Rubacha.
Extensive fine tuning of the projection and sound equipment will be necessary once the structure is complete, but the center is expected to be fully operational by the opening of classes in Sept.
The center will also have a brand new theater, compliant with the standards of the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers for sound and sight lines. Furthermore, the cinema is set up so that it can show films compatible with the latest technology and far more rudimentary forms, like silent films projected at different speeds.
On the other end of campus, the 56,000-square-foot addition to Freeman Athletic Center includes a gymnasium, fitness center, regulation squash courts, team rooms and a first aid area. The addition, at a $13 million cost, is expected to be completed by December, according to Project Manager Joe Crouse. The foundation for the addition was recently completed.
The gymnasium for basketball and volleyball games will seat over 1,000 people, have the latest in AV technology, remote score boards, hardwood floors and retractable, motorized bleachers. A new exercise area with treadmills, elliptical machines, TVs and a big sky light will replace the current fitness room in the basement of Freeman. The 7,500-foot exercise area will be three times the size of the current fitness room. There will also be team rooms and a first aid station.
The addition to Freeman became necessary because of the University’s plan to convert the Fayerweather complex into a new Campus Center. Crouse added that the current athletic facilities are inadequate and students are dissatisfied with them.
“There are students who had better facilities at their preparatory schools,” Crouse said.
Jeanine Basinger, chair of the Film Studies department and curator of the cinema archives, is enthusiastic about finally having a dedicated facility and adequate space for her programs.
“Film Studies desperately needed this,” Basinger said. “It was terrible.”
This is the first time in the film program’s 43-year history that it has a devoted space. Currently, the film department has offices in the department of admissions on Wyllys Avenue. Basinger says she and the other members of the department are thrilled by the new arrangement.
“We’re all wildly excited,” she said. “We’ve been standing on top of each other for 25 years.”
The new screening room will be much more spacious than the old cinema, with high ceilings and 410 rather than 250 seats. Basinger said the new cinema is “state of the art.”
According to Rubacha, construction of a new theater is crucial.
“The [current] cinema is not designed as it should be,” he said. “It’s too steep and the [projection] booth is too high.”
Although it has been decided that this new cinema will replace the current cinema in the CFA for film series events and classes, no resolution has been reached as to how the old cinema will be used after this semester.
According to Leith Johnson, director of the cinema archives and the representative of the film studies department to the project, harmony with the surroundings, particularly the traditional homes on Washington Street, was a priority of the architects and the Wesleyan representatives. The exterior is brick with large glass panes that’s a compromise between the stark modernity of the CFA and the colonial houses across the street.
“The architects wanted to be very careful to recognize the CFA’s context and at the same time give this space its own distinct look,” Johnson said.
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