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ELDOM IN A lifetime does a Director of Physical Education have the opportunity to direct the planning of a brand new million-dollar gymnasium for men and women. When I was appointed to my present position in 1951, while serving on the staff at the University of California, Berkeley, it was my task to work with the University architects on building plans for the new University of California campus at Riverside. We are the eighth and youngest member of the University of California, situated on 400 acres of land adjacent to the University Citrus Experiment Station in Riverside. The new campus is strictly a four-year Liberal Arts College and at present the Regents have spent over seven million dollars on five buildings, one of which is the physical education plant.

The directors of the five divisions of the new college were chosen in 1951-52 to assist in planning buildings and organizing the curriculum.

MULTIPLE-USE PLAN

The first phase of our building plan was to set down in writing our desired facilities and how we wanted them to function. This would be

Foyer is functional, providing

space for

recreation.

based on the philosophy and objectives of the department. Administratively, we were to have one Department of Physical Education with the chairman or director heading a combined men's and women's staff. There would be a two-year required lower division service program for men and women; most of the activities whenever possible would be conducted on a coeducational basis. Due consideration would always be given to specialized activities when required only for men or women.

Intramural athletics and recreational opportunities were to be given their rightful emphasis for both sexes either individually or on a coeducational basis. Varsity sports being a part of the Physical Education program at Riverside must likewise be evaluated and relationships indicated in the building plans. The gymnasium would have the only large auditorium space; social and university functions would share this facility. A major program in physical education for the future was also listed on the master planning sheet.

After surveying all these objectives, it was plainly evident the vari

timing, and the like are, of course, local decisions but the whole is a coordination program of public and human relations. Great patience and carefully planned approach is the essence of this first phase of acquiring a building fund.

The Florida Gymnasium was planned as a Gymnasium-Auditorium to provide a functional facility for the following units: (1) Physical education and health education in all phases; (2) Intercollegiate athletics; (3) Registration and orientation; (4) University graduation and other convocations; (5) Lyceum Council and civic music events; (6) Student body and military ROTC dance series; and (7) such other functions as were deemed necessary in the best interests of the University. It is the opinion of all concerned that the presentation of the "multiple use" idea was responsible for our securing the building funds.

While the building is the seat of the College of Physical Education and Health and is the direct responsibility of the Dean of that College, a special presidential committee originated and maintains a "priority use" schedule which in nearly ten years has changed little or none.

Some special emergency requests for short-term use have been handled to the satisfaction of all concerned. A schedule of charges for rental is made to each organization, except physical education and athletics, by the University Business Manager. These funds help the University Maintenance Department to service the facility properly.

PLANNING PRINCIPLES

Planning a building can be a very wonderful group effort with resulting closer professional and personal ties or the very opposite. The first prerequisites for planning should be

a complete understanding and acceptance of the following principles:

1. In the final analysis there must be one responsible person who must make decisions.

2. This final authority must have the trust and confidence of all the persons who are taken in on the planning.

3. Each unit concerned with the use of the building (and that means every unit, rot physical education alone) should have representation in at least the preliminary planning.

4. These representatives must not adopt an attitude which says "if you don't propose to take my advice why ask me to participate in the planning?"

5. It must be recognized that mistakes are inevitable.

6. It must be recognized that the degree to which the building can serve a number of purposes is controlled largely by finances and grounds available.

To sum up this phase of the procedure staff should be (and in our case were) invited to make their maximum and minimum needs known and to participate in meetings with the Dean, his assistants, and the architect to the point wherein space, location of space, type, and such matters as affect the particular operation of each instructor were "shaped up" into a practicable working plan. Large group participation beyond that point can slow down production, cause personal animosities, and produce little of real assistance.

In addition to the ideas secured from the physical education staff and representatives of the other units concerned the Dean, several assistants, the University planning architect, and the building architect consulted the National Facilities Guide and several books written by professional physical educators as well as plans of some existing facilities at institutions throughout the country where valuable information was gathered. This visitation expense was particularly well justified, because it illustrated "architecture in function" which is sometimes quite different from the same plan seen on the drafting board.

PLAN OF BUILDING

The plan we evolved as the result of the described preparation divided. the building in two ways. First, the conventional layout or "horizontal" design as follows: (1) the headhouse, comprising principally offices, semi

nar rooms, and library located in the front section of the building; (2) the physical education and intramural activity areas located in the "middle" section of the building; and (3) the intercollegiate athletic and auditorium area plus the dressing rooms, classrooms, and "special" rooms located in the rear section of the building. Secondly, the design embodies a "vertical" or from "bottom to top" arrangement. Each level is connected with ample stairways and, in some cases, ramps for ease of moving heavy equipment and to enable wheelchairs to move about in the building.

Upon mounting the front steps, one enters the foyer. This foyer extends to right and left and opens onto the corridors. (It should be noted that this "level" is some ten feet above "ground floor" or surface level.) This area contains administrative

building. Opening off the corridors at the rear of the building are a projection room and a dance room. In addition, access is provided to the outdoor pool deck while ramps lead down to the gym floor level where entrances to the gym proper and exits to the street are provided.

The "first" or ground floor level contains the main gymnasium floors, offices for the faculty of the Department of Required Physical Education for Men and dressing rooms for the physical education and general university faculties. The faculty dressing rooms and offices are loIcated in the front or headhouse section of the building. The middle section contains the physical education gym floor with storage rooms that open onto the gymnasium and also to the street. In the rear, or intercollegiate athletic-auditorium (Concluded on page 54)

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