Kenyon broke ground for a new a $60-million Center for Fitness, Recreation, and Athletics in April 2003. Located between Gambier's Duff Street and Meadow Lane, the building will offer approximately 263,000 square feet of space for a variety of pursuits. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2005.

Offering state-of-the-art fitness facilities, a 200-meter indoor track, and an arena for basketball and volleyball, the building also features classrooms, areas suitable for dance practice, laboratories for film and video production, and a 120-seat auditorium designed for film screenings and lectures. As a result, the center opens up new possibilities for film studies and video art, as well as the many athletic uses of film and video.

The building is being designed by Graham Gund, a 1963 graduate of Kenyon, and his firm, Graham Gund Architects of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gund and his firm have designed several buildings at the College, including Hayes Hall for Mathematics and Physics and Storer Hall for music.

"This building will be full of life, full of light, and full of activity," says Donald J. Omahan, the College's dean of students. "Downtown Gambier, the Kenyon bookstore, and the academic core of campus will always be the hub of student life—that won't change. What will change are the cramped spaces for weight machines and fitness pursuits, the inability of individual students to use a gym when athletic teams have practice, and the impossibility of hosting indoor track meets and indoor tennis matches."

The architects' plan calls for the extensive use of glass, both on the exterior and the interior, to create a feeling of openness and to foster a sense of community by giving the building's users views of many spaces and activities.