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A wellness clinic will serve clientele that includes faculty, staff, and special populations of the local community. Even undergraduates will work in the clinic, performing client evaluation, prescription, education, and supervision of exercise regimens. And an interdisciplinary OT and PT clinic will treat a broad range of ailments, including neurological and developmental disorders, sports and performing arts injuries, and industrial overuse syndromes. The clinic will have therapeutic whirlpools and a "work hardening" area to help rehabilitate injured people whose jobs require physical labor. Clients of several of the clinics will be children and adults from both on and off campus. The Gerontology Institute staff will have a new home on the top floor near the OT/PT clinic, gaining desperately needed room. "We are very pleased with the new space," says John Krout, the institute's director. "It's further proof of the College's commitment to the important, growing field of gerontology that we are going to have such an accessible, attractive setting." That commitment is also visible at Longview, a residential facility for older adults, which is near completion on College-ceded land just a short distance from campus. It will be linked through the Gerontology Institute to a broad range of programs at the College, offering significant interaction between students and its residents. Smiddy Hall and Hill Center will undergo renovation as part of the HS&HP facilities upgrade. Some PT and OT department and faculty offices now housed in those buildings and in Dillingham will be relocated to the new building, leaving space open for other uses; classes currently scattered in six buildings-including two temporary buildings that were put up this summer-will be streamlined. "We're all now vying for the opened-up space," laughs associate professor Roger Riley, therapeutic recreation and leisure services chair. "We're looking forward to reconfiguring and designing the areas of Hill Center that will be vacated."
Assistant dean David Dresser and vice president for business affairs Thomas Salm have been largely responsible for coordinating planning of the new facility. "I have been living and breathing it," says Dresser. "But now that it's happening, I couldn't be more delighted." With funding in place, things proceeded quickly. "The architect --- Bob O'Brien of [Ithaca-based] HOLT & C Architects --- came up with a building plan that pleases just about everybody," says Dresser. "And it wasn't easy."
Indeed, says Wigglesworth, "This building symbolizes a shared vision of what our educational programs will become. I, for one, feel fortunate to have played a part in the shaping of this extraordinary new space for our students and the community we serve." And faculty, staff, and students are eager
to move in. They don't even seem to mind the noise and inconvenience of
living around a building zone. As Pagliarulo says, "Every time there's
another blast we put up a cheer --- because we're that much closer to completion."
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Exercise science labs --- in biomechanics,
motor learning, physiology, and exercise physiology --- will be augmented
by a metabolism area housing a 75-foot gait analysis section and an environmental
chamber with climate control.
Funding for the $14.6 million project
came in part from the proceeds of a bond issue, supplemented by a bequest
of more than $1.2 million from longtime friend and trustee Robert Reed Colbert
Sr., who died in 1991. In his speech at the groundbreaking ceremony, current
trustee Robert W. Baker Sr. credited Colbert with envisioning the new building
long before it became a reality: "Bob just knew we would need to do
it before long, and that was enough for him to decide to help make it happen."
There were some obstacles, concedes O'Brien.
"A major challenge was combining the academic functions with the clinical
areas so they could work both independently and interactively," he
explains. "The faculty and staff of HS&HP worked intensively with
the design team to define and shape the many details."