Construction is under way to double the square footage at the University of Charleston's Eddie King Gym.
By this fall, the new, 70,000 square-foot facility will be home to the Russell and Martha Wehrle Innovation Center.
University officials opened construction on the project last summer that will fund major renovations on the gym, which was built in 1947 and named after Morris Harvey College's athletic director from 1947-57, Eddie King. Its cost exceeds $14 million.
The new facility will boast an intercollegiate athletic facility for basketball and volleyball, as well as space and resources to help bolster innovation and entrepreneurship among UC students and faculty, Director of Communications David Traube said.
"We're taking the Eddie King Gym and reimagining it, and building the rest from scratch," Traube said.
When the university hosts an open house of the new facility during Homecoming Weekend from Oct. 7 to 9, it "won't even resemble" the old facility.
A video on the university's website details those dramatic changes. Green space will surround the facility, and the circular entrance to the center will be above the canopy positioned over the existing gym doors. The basketball court will be repositioned to run north to south instead of its current east to west layout.
In addition to the court, concessions and locker rooms, the athletics section of the facility will also feature the UC Athletic Hall of Fame; offices for the athletic director and coaches; video rooms for teams to review game tapes; and a conference room on the third floor where coaches can meet with recruits and their families.
A new walking track is also being built, which will be open to the public, Traube said.
But the innovation side of the facility will offer additional resources to students, such as a classroom with fully mobile furnishings on the second floor, as well as areas with computers and other equipment for students to work collaboratively on projects and ideas.
New technology will include hard wired and wireless data throughout the center, monitors, projectors, video boards and sound systems, Traube said.
He noted there's been an increased need at UC for work spaces that cater to entrepreneurs.
The university is also in the process of hiring a vice president who would manage the innovation center and "lead a team of scholars on different things," Traube said.
"We're building this really cool gym, but we also want to have a great educational component to it," Traube said.
The university will host an open house during homecoming weekend from Oct. 7 to 9 for students and alumni to tour the finished product.
"We think a lot of people will be in town [who] have a vested interest in it - it gives us an opportunity to host some events," Traube said.
The facility will be named after Russell and Martha Wehrle, two longtime UC Board of Trustees members whose foundation made a $5 million donation toward the building's renovation in 2014. Martha Wehrle was a state legislator for more than two decades.
Pickering Associates and ZDS handled the design work on the project, while BBL is the general contractor with several local subcontractors, Traube said.
Reach Elaina Sauber at
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