UCLA Kinross Recreation Center “˜K-Rec’ finally opens its doors for graduate student community

Late at night, the John Wooden Center is crowded, so Dongwon Lee, a graduate student in electrical engineering, often has to wait in lines to use machines and facility showers.

Now, Lee will have access to a new fitness space just for graduate students. Over spring break, workers polished the floors and hooked up television screens to finish the renovation of the first floor of the UCLA Kinross Recreation Center.

The center, designed to be a hub for graduate student workout and social activity, opens today in Westwood Village at 11000 Kinross Avenue.

In addition to the new gym, the long-awaited renovation of the facility, nicknamed K-Rec, will house a common space, study areas and a convenience store run by Associated Students UCLA.

The facility meets the graduate student need for common space where they can socialize, hold group meetings, and work out ““ a place they can call home, said Rich Mylin, associate director of facility and event operations for UCLA Recreation.

“I think the graduate community was looking for just that ““ a community,” said Amber Brown, K-Rec manager, who led graduate student focus groups through the planning process.

All graduate students can use K-Rec, which was supported by undergraduate and graduate student fees through a Wooden Center general fund, Mylin said. The bid for the renovation was approximately $1 million, he said.

A large, open room decorated with modern greenish-yellow and silver-colored furniture serves as the graduate student lounge and study space ““ dubbed the graduate student community center. On one end of the room, high-bar tables sit in front of three large flat-screen televisions. A smaller, enclosed room with study desks and group tables for quiet study is connected to the opposite side.

Through focus groups that formed in the planning process, graduate students emphasized the need for a quiet study area, Mylin said.

Cory Shyu, a graduate student at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, said she could make use of the study space at K-Rec. Her Weyburn Terrace building has one study room and the Anderson library gets crowded when students are reserving study rooms there, she said.

The building was designed with sustainability in mind, Mylin said. In addition, architects worked with the industrial quality of the building, he said.

The gym space extends to an outdoor, covered courtyard, where some strength-training and cardio equipment can be used. Fitness, dance, martial arts, and yoga classes will be held in the courtyard, as well as an indoor studio.

Lee said the facility can benefit him ““ it’s closer to his apartment and would be less crowded, he said. Tony Cun, a medical student, said he knows other graduate students who currently pay for gym memberships off-campus to avoid overcrowding at the Wooden Center and to save time.

Student groups can begin making plans to rent out space for events at K-Rec as soon as next fall, Mylin said. This could ease the planning process for graduate student events, said Daniel Goodman, Graduate Students Association events director and graduate student in chemical engineering.

The graduate student government uses ASUCLA facilities on campus that are often booked months or up to a year in advance. With K-Rec, the GSA will not have to compete with undergraduates and outside organizations for event space, Goodman said.