Red Gym welcomes first occupants

Officials expect minimal disruption to campus services as eight student services offices move to the renovated Red Gym.

Completing the $12.75 million restoration of the venerable 19th century armory, tenants began moving Monday (Oct. 19). Moving will continue for about two weeks, and by early November, the center should be fully operational, says Steve Saffian, the assistant dean of students who has overseen the details of the Red Gym project.

Moving the Office of Admissions is the first – and the largest – undertaking. Admissions Director Robert Seltzer expects the move, which involves 50 workers and about 2,000 boxes, will take several days.

Seltzer says phones will be answered and services provided throughout the move from buildings on Lake and Murray streets, about two blocks from the Red Gym. Phone numbers, including the main number, 262-3961, will not change.

During the move, signs will be posted at current offices and the Red Gym to direct students and others to the correct location for the help they are seeking.

“We’re expecting to be open to the public continually,” Seltzer says. “Our clients will be able to find us.”

After admissions workers make their move, other student services will follow. Following is a tentative schedule for the move, with offices listed alphabetically:

Admissions
Current location: A.W. Peterson Building, 750 University Ave., and 432 N. Lake St. Moving Monday through Wednesday, Oct. 19-21.

Campus Assistance and Visitor Center
Current location: 420 N. Lake St. Moving date: Nov. 2. Note: CAC director Jan Wheaton says the center will close for up to four days beginning Oct. 29, but will reopen by 8 a.m., Nov. 5. Call (608) 263-2400 for the latest information.

Madison Friends of International Students
Current location: 115 Science Hall, 445 N. Park St. Moving Oct. 26.

Morgridge Center for Public Service
Current location: Union South, 227 N. Randall Ave. Will be moved in by Nov. 3.

Multicultural Student Services Center
Current location: Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St. Moving Oct. 30, may be closed Nov. 2 and 3.

International Student and Scholar Services
Current location: 115 Science Hall, 445 N. Park St. Moving Oct. 26.

Student Organizations Office
Current location: 89 Bascom Hall, 500 Lincoln Drive. Moving Oct. 29.

Student Orientation Programs
Current location: Gordon Offices, 717 W. Johnson St. Moving Oct. 29.

In addition to the offices, the new Red Gym contains a public lounge in a newly created mezzanine above the second floor that includes a view of Lake Mendota; a student art gallery; an Infolab; a media room for group presentations; and the multi-purpose On Wisconsin Room, on the site of the old swimming pool on the first floor.

Although renovated for office use, the landmark building’s interior retains many touches of history. The steel trusses arching over the second-floor gymnasium remain, a tribute to the state-of-the-art construction techniques used when the gym went up in 1894; the cream city brick walls of both the Campus Assistance and Visitor Center and the Morgridge Center have been stripped of paint and returned to their natural state; and the wide front stairways remain.