The Campus Crossroads project’s West Building will be an expression of the University of Notre Dame’s commitment to the development of the whole student, and a daily destination for student life and campus activities.
The new student center features ample space to enhance programming opportunities for the more than 400 student clubs and organizations at Notre Dame. The building features a new 10,000-square-foot ballroom with gorgeous campus views that can be divided to host multiple student events at once. A coffee club venue on the first floor will accommodate acoustic performances and comedy shows. A multilevel terrace lounge and adjacent eateries will host hundreds of students for game watches and countless other social events.
“We’re very excited about all of the new spaces available for students in the West Building,” Brian Fremeau, director of Student Activities Facilities, said. “A student center enlivens a campus serving as a place where students of all backgrounds come to eat, meet up with friends and to get involved in student life outside the classroom.”
The facility will have a state-of-the-art media center to house Notre Dame’s many student media organizations, including Scholastic Magazine, Dome Yearbook, The Juggler, NDTV, WVFI and WSND.
“We’re going to bring them together in one zone so they can collaborate with each other,” Fremeau said. “The way media is distributed today is so much different than when those organizations were formed. Our student media makers need to be able to connect with each other in a way that mirrors what they’re going to find when they move into the new media marketplace.”
New meeting rooms and lounges have all been designed to meet the evolving needs of student clubs and organizations, and to invite the participation of all undergraduate, graduate and professional students looking to get involved. Graduate students will also find a dedicated lounge for their use. The West Building will complement LaFortune Student Center and vice versa — both facilities and the programs and services within will drive an unprecedented student life experience for generations of students near both the academic and residential centers of campus.
The West Building’s student center creates exciting new possibilities for seamless collaboration with the new recreation and fitness facilities situated above. The fitness equipment areas and activity rooms designed in the facility triple the amount of space allocated to those functions in the current Rolfs Sports Recreation Center. RecSports will be equipped to support more fitness class offerings, enhanced club sports opportunities and a more integrated social and wellness experience.
“Notre Dame students are very physically active, and our campus boasts a history of terrific intramural programs and club sports,” Mark Williams, director of RecSports, said. “This space will provide them with a state-of-the-art fitness facility located in an exciting hub of campus, encouraging their holistic development.”
The new facilities will be impressive, but it’s the substance that makes them uniquely Notre Dame.
“Students only spend a portion of their experience inside a classroom, and their involvement in student life and leadership in clubs and organizations contributes to their growth as leaders at a university dedicated to the formation of both mind and heart,” Fremeau said. “We are thrilled at the possibilities that this new facility will offer to continue building community at Notre Dame.”
Originally published by at news.nd.edu on October 28, 2014.