Hundreds of UNM students visit the Johnson Center every day, either to attend a class, practice personal fitness, participate in recreational activities or practice and play for a school sport.
For the amount of students using the building daily, the limited amount of space, outdated circuitry, confusing floor plan, and not-so-Americans with Disabilities Act-friendly layout are only the most apparent things that prove Johnson Center is in a dire need of a renovation.
“My first day entering Johnson Center for a stretching and relaxation class, I could not find my way to the class even after asking a faculty member to help,” said Hannah Griffin, a freshman communications and journalism major. “I found a couple of other students in the same class that were just as confused as me, and we ended up sitting in the wrong class for fifteen minutes”
In the facility, classes and sporting events happen at the same time. The limited space causes the classrooms to be scattered about the building, all centered around the main gym. As a result, the classrooms are not isolated from noise in the building. Often games with hundreds of attendees and fitness courses fall on the same schedule, and the commotion from games may flow into classrooms.
Certain rooms, such as the weight room, have a set time for students not attending a class to use it. Throughout the day, the space is used for classes and athletics, and if a student is not involved in either while visiting Johnson, they are not allowed into the room that is being used.
Even with perfect timing, a student who goes to work out on the weight room’s schedule might find it filled with others trying to do the same: fit in their workout time before the next class starts and takes over the room.
Director of Recreational Services Jim Todd said there are also faults in the building’s construction, mostly taking the form of chips, dents, water damage and sunken ceiling tiles. Further, Todd said there is no centralized air system.
There was a renovation to the facility four years ago that in some ways did improve the building, Todd said, with such things as a new refurbished rest-room for ladies by the east entrance, the cardio/weight room on the east end, the pool on the north side, as well as the entrance of the building.
However, he said a lot of the new accommodations were done rather quickly, and the major projects for the building, such as the plumbing and electrical issues, were accomplished through shortcuts.
The facility is paying the price as a result. All of the electric components are connected to one breaker that frequently blows out, Todd said. The shortcuts taken when this problem was first dealt with caused the other two breakers to fail, resulting in having to redo what was done before and more.
With the new renovations, rooms were placed on each side of the building, but not many hallways or walkways were built to ensure easy mobility.
“The building is ADA-accessible, but I wouldn’t call it ADA-friendly,” Todd said.
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The Americans with Disabilities Act states that there are “enforceable standards under Titles II and III for new construction, alterations, program accessibility and barrier removal,” according to ada.gov/ada_intro.htm, the webpage for the United States Department of Justice and Civil Rights Division.
There are two elevators — one on the far east end of the building and the far west end — which are the only two options that disabled students have to reach their classes on the upper or lower levels of the main building.
UNM is currently considering possible future renovations to Johnson Center. Students can provide their input by visiting the recreational services webpage at recsvcs.unm.edu/common/new-rec-center/new-recreational-center.html.
Denicia Aragon is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo
