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Bradley Hilltopics

Winter 2009 • Volume 15, Issue 1  

Markin Center pool with title, new rec complex wows campus

By JUSTIN PHELPS ’05

What a gem. The Markin Family Student Recreation Center is a diamond in the rough of a 4.3-acre construction site. It eventually will be one of four structures anchoring a new west quad with the new Athletic Performance Center, the Puterbaugh Men’s Basketball Practice Facility, and the Hayden-Clark Alumni Center. A major addition is also planned to Westlake Hall.

For now, the Markin Center stands as a beautiful beginning to the Bradley Renaissance.

From painstakingly installing 136 doorknobs by hand, to the backbreaking work of securing individual 2 ¼-inch-wide strips of maplewood to create the more-than-30,000 square feet of hardwood floor, construction workers needed 550 days to complete the 130,000-square-foot facility.

Now students have a state-of-the-art, first-rate recreation complex. While Haussler Hall provided fitness equipment — as limited as availability was — the Markin Center is a true recreation center with five basketball courts, a multi-activity court (MAC) for indoor soccer or roller hockey, a pool, a rock climbing wall, a 1/8-mile indoor track, and many multipurpose rooms for dance, spinning classes, martial arts, and other group activities.

Academically, the Department of Nursing boasts a new computer lab, skills lab, health assessment lab, and a virtual simulation lab with sophisticated electronic manikins that respond to students’ care. In addition, Health Services, the Wellness Program, and the Counseling Center, which serve a combined 17,000 patients each year, are now housed in the lower level.

With many “thank-yous” to DAVID MARKIN ’53 and all the other donors who have made this facility possible, enjoy the pictorial tour.

Click here to launch a full-screen slideshow.

Photography by Duane Zehr, Sarah Dukes, OLIVER SQUIBB ’09, DANA MASHEK ’11

Visit bradley.edu’s Markin Center spotlight page for more information, or contact Mike Keup, Director of Campus Recreation, at mkeup@bradley.edu.

The Markin Center by the numbers

23 steps to scale the 46' climbing wall.
$25,000,000 project cost of the Markin Center.
160,000+ man-hours to complete the project.
30,000 square feet of sports floor.
291 seats in Championship Gym.
691 lockers.
2:1 ratio of cardio machines in the Markin Center compared to Haussler Hall.
140 student jobs within the building.
12,230 square feet of exterior glass.
2,850 square feet of mirrors.
32,100 square feet of hardwood floor.