The Hadley Family Recreation and Well-Being Center opened its doors Wednesday morning to begin summer recreation operations before the fall semester.
The soft opening includes limited daily hours from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with all five floors open —excluding the aquatic center and the climbing wall areas.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Mike Widen, director of campus recreation at the University of Michigan, said the vision for the Hadley Center began in 2011 with the founding of the student organization Building a Better Michigan. The organization’s advocacy called for improvements to the Michigan Union and Michigan Recreation facilities, which prompted the University to institute a $65 fee on tuition payments to fund renovations for U-M Unions and recreational sports facilities.
“Their goal was to advocate and help build demand for investments into those two types of spaces,” Widen said. “A fee in 2013 was implemented for $65 per term that students now pay that will help support the renovations and projects for unions and Michigan Recreation.”
Past projects partially funded by the fee include renovating Mitchell Field in 2014, the Intramural Sports Building in 2016, and the North Campus Recreation Building in 2018.
Student members of Building a Better Michigan joined the design team for the Hadley Center, helping decide on desirable amenities and layouts by visiting other Midwest institutions’ unions and recreation centers.
“We take students on an annual benchmarking trip every year, so every year in January, we take them to another campus recreation facility or University Unions facility at other campuses,” Widen said. “They could come back and say, ‘We saw this feature at X institution and we don’t like it’, or, for example, ‘We saw the way the University of Wisconsin branded their facility with lots of red and white for their school colors, and we want that’.”
The Hadley Center’s amenities include a 25-yard, 12-lane lap pool; a recreation pool; a recovery pool; a 220-yard indoor track; a sauna; and a steam room. There are four basketball courts, six volleyball courts, three racquetball courts, two squash courts, and three wallyball courts. There are also 127 weight machines and 135 cardio machines throughout the facility.
The center is named after Philip and Nicole Hadley, whose two children attended the University. The family made a $20 million donation to support construction of the facility.
Upon entering the building, visitors are greeted by the climbing center’s 52-foot top-roping wall, which sits right next to the check-in desk. Widen emphasized the facility’s size and variety of terrain.
“The climbing center has three climbing components: top roping, speed climbing and bouldering,” Widen said. “This is what we believe to be one of the tallest and one of the most comprehensive climbing experiences in any campus recreation facility in the country. We have a climbing club that we sponsor on campus, and then we’ll open it up for opportunities for drop-in climbing.”
The bouldering area is expected to open later during the summer months, while the full climbing facility is slated to open in the fall after Michigan Recreation employees are trained to certify climbers.
In an interview with The Daily, LSA rising sophomore Shaan Mullick said he is excited to use the climbing center and have a free, accessible bouldering wall.
“I’m really excited for the climbing,” Mullick said. “Everywhere (for) climbing you could go, you usually need a car or a lot of money for a membership. All this comes free. I’ve been bouldering for the past four years, and I haven’t been able to boulder anywhere in Ann Arbor.”
The bottom level of the Hadley Center features squash and racquetball courts, the main weights area and the aquatic area, which features three pools, a steam room and a sauna.
In an interview with The Daily, Kinesiology rising senior Reva Ignaczak, a Michigan Recreation personal trainer, said she looks forward to using the facility’s new machinery.
“I think I’m most excited for some of the new lower-body machines that are in the basement, like the belt squat machine, and definitely the treadmills, where you can change the surface you’re walking on,” Ignaczak said.
According to Widen, the smaller fitness areas spread across all five floors were an intentional design feature to help students with differing preferences and fitness goals feel comfortable.
“We didn’t want to create a single space that had hundreds and hundreds of students working out together,” Wilden said. “We wanted to create smaller spaces, because we know not everybody is in the same place in their fitness journey.”
Wilden said the second floor of the Hadley Center is expected to be the most active. The floor features an indoor futsal turf court; a functional fitness room; turf spaces for dynamic circuit training; a single basketball court; personal training studios; strength and fitness areas; and multipurpose rooms.
Ignaczak said she looks forward to having a gym with more space and designated private areas to work with her personal training clients.
“Right now, especially during rush hour, like the evening, when everybody’s trying to get in the gym, it can be really hard to train a client and make the most use out of that one-hour session that we get,” Ignaczak said. “There are two studios (at Hadley), as opposed to the zero at the NCRB and Palmer (Commons).”
Many of the machines face large windows, overlooking Geddes and Washtenaw Avenue. Widen said the building prioritizes natural lighting while limiting the number of windows to meet LEED platinum certification requirements.
“A component of the building’s sustainability is that only 22% of the exterior of this building has windows in it, and that helps get us to be one of the first buildings on campus that is LEED platinum certified,” Widen said. “The wooden floors throughout the facility are sustainably sourced from the Upper Peninsula.”
A LEED platinum certification is the highest globally recognized standard for sustainable building design, construction and operation, requiring high levels of energy efficiency and water conservation. The renewable energy used in the building reduces the facility’s carbon footprint and improves air quality.
The fourth floor features a cycle studio, strength and fitness area and an indoor track with a short and long loop. The cycle studio will be used for Group-X fitness classes led by student instructors.
The fifth floor features the Mind and Body studio as well as massage chairs, walking desks and social spaces, which are part of the center’s focus on wellness. This year, the University is embracing a theme of Human Health and Well-Being, aiming to address public health challenges external to the University, as well as address health and well-being needs on campus.
“The hope for the future is that through the opening of this facility, we can make campus healthy and allow opportunities for individuals to learn habits that they can use for the rest of their lives,” Widen said. “Whether it’s learning about a new exercise class or a new opportunity to play racquetball and climb on the wall or swim in a pool … to help them maintain and grow a healthy lifestyle.”
Daily Staff Reporter Sophia Jayasekera can be reached at sophiaja@umich.edu.
