University of Alabama Planning $88 Million Rec Center Near Tutwiler Hall

The University of Alabama plans to demolish a building near Bryant-Denny Stadium, Sorority Row and Tutwiler Hall to replace it with an $88 million recreation center built for the thousands of students who live on the south end of campus, far from the gyms UA already operates.

The Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System voted Friday to authorize planning for the South Campus Student Recreation Center, the single most expensive University of Alabama project on the board's agenda last week.

Mike Rogers, the system's assistant chancellor for construction management, presented the project to the board's Physical Properties Committee on Thursday. The proposal calls for demolishing Barnwell Hall at 802 Paul W. Bryant Drive, in the shadow of the stadium and nestled among the sororities, and building a roughly 75,000-square-foot recreation center somewhere in the south campus area.

(University of Alabama)

A university spokeswoman said Barnwell Hall is not currently in use and is slated to come down in the summer of 2027. UA's building directory still lists the hall as the home of University Printing Services, the print shop that handles their sign-making, bulk mail processing and more.

The university will split the work into two pieces, tearing the building down under one construction package and putting up the recreation center under another, an approach board documents say is meant to deliver the new building as quickly as possible. Demolition is budgeted at $2.25 million and construction at just over $65 million.

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Plans call for weight-training and cardio fitness areas, flexible spaces for functional and hybrid training, dedicated recovery and restoration areas, and multi-purpose rooms for what the university described as mind-body wellness activities.

Rogers told trustees the facility would serve roughly 10,000 students on the south end of campus, including sorority houses in the Greek community, residents of Tutwiler Hall, and students living in nearby off-campus housing, who currently have to hike or drive to a UA gym.

The two existing fitness centers both sit about a mile from the Barnwell Hall site. The 227,130-square-foot Student Recreation Center, the larger and busier of the two, is on Peter Bryce Boulevard on the far east side of campus. The 81,329-square-foot Robert E. Witt Student Activity Center, known for its climbing wall and floor-to-ceiling views of the Black Warrior River, is at 654 Abercrombie Lane at the far north end of campus near Presidential Village.

Board documents lay out a blunter case, saying that UA leans on those two buildings for nearly all of its student recreation space. Together, they work out to about 6.5 square feet of recreation space per student, which the university said falls well short of the 8 to 10 square feet per student its SEC peers offer.

The documents also say a programming study found that students actively using what UA already has are asking for more, specifically wellness and recovery space, weight training and cardio, and more open fitness and gym activities.

The university considered renovating Barnwell Hall rather than replacing it, but concluded that the building's physical constraints, limited room to expand, and inability to house the recreation program it wanted made a renovation the weaker option. Knocking it down will also erase almost $30 million in deferred maintenance liabilities, according to the board documents, savings that offset a third of what the university expects to spend redeveloping it.

UA President Peter J. Mohler sent the package to System Chancellor Sid J. Trant on August 5th with his endorsement, asking that it be added to the September agenda.

Thursday's action was a Stage 1 submittal, which authorizes the university to begin project planning and nothing more. No architect has been selected, and the university said no construction schedule has been set. The project will have to return to the board for additional approvals before any work begins.

Trustees approved the recreation center as part of a package of 11 University of Alabama construction and real estate items, a slate that also included a Stage 4 approval allowing construction to begin on the Capstone College of Nursing addition and a new lease bringing the Mediterranean chain Cava to the Strip.

For more news about construction and development at the University of Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.