State of the Plex: sculpting the facility as it currently stands

Work hard. Play hard. Exercise harder. At Boston College, working out is an activity that often finds itself high on the student body's priority list. BC's standing as the third fittest college in the United States, according to a 2006 survey conducted by Men's Fitness Magazine is often cited to legitimize this claim. The main forum for students to break a sweat, tone up, and burn calories lies within the walls of the Flynn Recreation Complex, commonly known as the Plex.

This facility was constructed more than 40 years ago following a student referendum to establish a building for student recreation. After the referendum was voted on, the students contributed money each year to keep the Plex up and running, says Eric Zeckman, assistant director of facilities and operations for the Plex. This specific contribution is no longer necessary as tuition dollars have become the students' contribution toward the maintenance of the Plex.

Though the Institutional Master Plan calls for the demolition of the Plex as it currently stands, and for the construction of a new facility in the interim, Campus Recreation is doing the best that it can to improve the building and continue meeting the needs of gym members. "We're always trying to update the machinery," Zeckman says. "We try to have the latest machines that we can have so the fitness areas have the latest and greatest equipment."

The Quonset Hut, located on Newton Campus, has also seen its fair share of new machinery lately as it came under control of CampusRec on Sept. 1, 2010. It is the hope of CampusRec that freshmen living on Newton will not have to make the trek to Lower Campus to find an adequate facility in which to work out.

The fact that the machines are up-to-date according to industry standards does not mean that they are not susceptible to normal wear and tear and random malfunctions, however. When a machine is not working properly, a white sheet is placed on the piece of equipment, informing people that the machine is temporarily out of order and will be repaired. Plex officials are unable to repair the machines themselves and, instead, rely on Fittrax, a vendor with which they have a contract, whose staff visits the facility twice a month to make repairs. Zeckman says that Fittrax usually has a preventative visit to clean and oil machines, and then a more involved visit during which they break down machines to replace treadmill belts and perform repairs on a larger scale.

Zeckman realizes that some machines may have that white sheet taped to the monitor for longer than some students would like, but some things are beyond the facility's control. "Ideally, nothing would ever be out of order for more than a week or two," he says. "The issue we run into is if the vendor says something along the lines of, ‘Well, the cargo ship got detained in Japan and never made it here so we don't have the parts.'" In the event that parts are backordered or unable to get to BC for some other reason, Plex officials try to ensure that they have a number of similar machines in stock so that the loss of one or two would not be such a hindrance for those working out.

However, some students complain that even though the machines might be up-to-date, the general appearance of the Plex makes it so that its age really shows. "I think that the aesthetics of the place are not up to par," says Angelica Ferrazzi, CSON '13. "It looks like a dingy place. It doesn't look like we're the third fittest school in the nation."

Gabriela Hidalgo, A&S '13, agrees that the facility is in need of some general remodeling. "You want to go work out and you're trying to be motivated, but you go to the Plex and it's just grimy and too old," she says. She says that some of her friends are so bothered by it that they have taken it upon themselves to go to local gyms instead.

Plex officials do understand these student concerns, recognizing that the facility is not the most modern. "Because the facility is aging we really try to focus on upgrading a lot of the facility components, so you'll see things like new lobby flooring, new lighting in the lobby, a new reception desk, and just general things to make it more inviting and welcoming to the students, faculty, and staff that use the facility," Zeckman says.

As far as future updates and current projects are concerned, they are more subtle than a new reception desk and more geared at ensuring safety. In the coming year, contractors will be redoing parts of the pool deck to eliminate slipping hazards in addition to regritting and painting the tennis courts so that the playing experience is more realistic.