Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium Celebrates LeFrak Gymnasium Renovation
12/13/2006 12:00:00 AM | General
NEW YORK – Nearly 100 alumni, administration, student-athletes, coaches, staff and friends turned out to celebrate the recent completion of the renovation of Barnard's LeFrak Gymnasium.
Sharon Everson, Chair of Barnard Physical Education, Dr. Judith Shapiro, President of Barnard College, and Dr. M. Dianne Murphy, Columbia's Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Education, each gave a tip of the hat to the successful partnership that is the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium.
"The renovation symbolizes the best components of our relationship with Columbia Athletics: cooperation, partnership and commitment to the spirit of providing quality opportunities for our student-athletes," notes Everson. "While the LeFrak Gym's competition days are behind it, the late Marion Phillips, Physical Education Department Chair and a prime-mover of the Athletic Consortium, would be pleased that this face lift has given it a new life as an appropriate training and practice venue for our Division I women and men student-athletes."
The entire project cost nearly $500,000 and included the installation of a new floor, rims and backboards, and a fresh coat of paint for the gym, according to Jason Ribiero, Project Manager at Columbia. Ribiero notes that there are also plans to install wall-padding over the winter break.
"This is really a state-of-the-art floor," added Bill Ebner, Columbia's Associate Athletics Director for Facilities, who helped oversee the overhaul. The gym floor, which took two months to install and cost $350,000, is the Uniforce System supplied by Connor Flooring Company and is their premier intercollegiate basketball product, according to Ebner.
Beginning in April and continuing through August, the Francis Levien Gymnasium on Columbia's campus will be closed due to construction in Pupin Plaza (the rest of the Marcellus Hartley Dodge Physical Fitness Center will remain unaffected by the construction). During this stretch, LeFrak Gymnasium will serve as a substitute training facility for the Columbia University intercollegiate teams in addition to the Barnard student population.
