Ray Meyer had an unbelievably successful career as DePaul’s basketball coach, and so it is fitting that the Lincoln Park Campus Recreation facility is named in his honor.When Meyer was finished at DePaul, his son Joey was hired to take the helm. His coaching was good, but nowhere near the standard his father set. This is why DePaul’s shoebox-sized downtown gym is jokingly referred to as the “Joey Meyer.”
In the basement of the College of Computing and Digital Media building downtown, after curving through a few different hallways, you will find the “gym.” Flanked by a men’s and women’s locker room, the space offers about 7 pieces of cardio machines and some select free weights.
Are there plans for a gym anytime soon? Director of Campus Recreation, Maureen McGonagle would like to think so. “Building the Ray took about 12 years from the start of planning until construction finished, so you can imagine how long a gym downtown would take.”
The biggest problem is the severe lack of space. Vice President of Facilities Operations, Bob Janis makes this clear.
“The primary reason that a student and staff fitness and recreation center akin to The [Ray] Meyer Center has not been put in place downtown is in fact due to the lack of available space and competing priorities. The [Ray] Meyer Center is 123,000 square feet. That is the equivalent of two and a half floors of DePaul Center,” Janis said.
A downtown gym would not include 4 basketball courts because of the high ceilings required. It would also not have a track, pool or racquetball courts.
The Lincoln Park facility has five studios for group fitness classes, club practices, instructional programs and open recreation use. This would be reduced to one in the downtown gym, but would not be a priority.
Not everyone is unhappy with “The Joey Meyer.” Senior Alec Ziegler lives in Lakeview, and has all his classes downtown.
“I really like the space. Not a lot of people know about this gym, and I never have to wait for equipment. Yeah, I can’t do a big, fancy workout like I’m sure I could at The Ray, but I can definitely get a workout,” he said.
Francesca Rugo, a building manager at The Ray also is not too keen on the idea of a large downtown facility.
“Think about it, where is the one place that really brings students together? We are already a split campus, and having a gym downtown would just make the divide even bigger,” she said. “Yeah, students go downtown for classes, but then the majority comes back to Lincoln Park and The Ray is a place for lots of students to come at the end of the day.”
Ideally, the downtown space would mirror the second floor of The Ray with mostly cardio machines and free weights. It would also need room for administration offices, two locker rooms, and most likely one studio. Because it would be smaller, it would also most likely not be open to non-student members. 40,000 square feet would be most ideal for making this realistic.
McGonagle and Janis are both not closing the door on this possibility, and in fact, are open to discussion about it.
However, as Janis said, “Even 20,000 square feet is a number hard to accommodate when we still have significant space needs to satisfy for CDM, the College of Commerce and a long list of other departments and support elements.