Celebrating one year of a Bigger, Better Burdick
With the opening of a 94,000-square foot addition to the campus recreation center, Campus Recreation has seen healthy growth and impact in the community
By Kyle Hobstetter on January 29, 2018
When it was opened in 2018, the new Campus Recreation center was promoted as a “Bigger Better Burdick.”
A year later, the 94,000-square foot addition to the campus recreation center is living up to that moniker by becoming a fixture to the Towson University community.
After six years of planning, construction and fine tuning, the opening brought overwhelming excitement to Grady Sheffield, director of TU’s Campus Recreation department. After spending a year in the building, he truly believes the “Bigger, Better Burdick” has been a “game changer.”
“It’s been awesome to see the impact from this first year,” Sheffield said. “I see the impact on students, impact on faculty and staff and the impact on the perceptions of Towson University. This has really validated the work that we do in Campus Recreation.”
READ MORE: A Big Better Burdick
The impact through the addition of the state-of-the-art facility has been felt throughout the year. Examples of the impact include:
- Campus Rec sold 2,410 guest passes
- Burdick Hall averaged 1,700 daily participants
- Campus Rec services have been used by 55 percent of the TU student body
- The new fitness center had 393,000 total visits during its first year of operation.
- Campus Rec offered 434 facility tours of the new Burdick Hall
- Over 2,300 guests have used Campus Rec facilities, an 84 percent increase from last year
- Over 120 regular faculty and staff attendees
Those figures aside, what makes a difference for Sheffield is the positive feedback he’s received both through surveys and in-person.
“The feedback has been nothing but amazement, and shock and awe I think,” Sheffield laughs. “There are comments about how beautiful the facility is and how amazed with everything we have to offer from a fitness standpoint.
“With this new expansion, people just want to be there and see what we have to offer.”
The expansion has allowed the Campus Rec team to offer not only more space, but new options on how attendees can work out. Some of the new features that can be found in Burdick Hall are:
- Two multi-activity courts with rubber athletic flooring lined for volleyball, badminton and Futsol
- A state-of-the-art cycling studio with sound, lights and video display
- A “skills studio” with retractable heavy bag system, speed bags and other equipment used for boxing and skill-based training
- 22,000-square feet of open fitness floor space for cardio, strength and functional training
- Brand-new cardio machines, strength training machines, and free weights
- A sprint hill and simulated stadium stairs for interval training
- A new outdoor adventures center
- Three fully equipped studios for group fitness classes
- A professionally designed “Ninja Warrior” style training course called “The Jungle,” where students can try exercising on obstacles based off the hit television show.
But probably the most important new feature for Sheffield is that the Campus Recreation department have one main office to house its staff and student employees.
“We don’t have employees working in closets anymore,” Sheffield laughs. “Having everyone together has been great for our departmental cohesiveness. And I’m very proud of the team that we have, because we have some outstanding people working in our department, who are doing outstanding work.”
Burdick Hall Before and After
The Burdick Hall expansion is just one of several new additions coming to Towson University’s campus. It’s also the latest addition to “Tiger Way,” the pedestrian walkway spanning West Village to York Road — which will serve as the main gateway to Towson University featuring Burdick Hall, the expanded University Union and the College of Liberal Arts building.
Initially the Campus Rec staff were concerned because of the amount of construction happening in their area. But Sheffield wanted them to realize that after the construction was finished, they would be at the center of student life at TU.
“We are at the foundation of that gateway to campus,” Sheffield says. “The first building you see when you come through the entrance is Burdick Hall, and every perspective student is going to come into our facility. We couldn’t ask for anything more.”
With a brand new facility and brand new home for Campus Recreation staff, Sheffield is excited about what the future offers. He also excited to see how Campus Recreation at Towson University can continue to evolve.
“We’re still learning about the space and how to maximize its usage and maximize what we have to offer,” Sheffield says. “We used to say we can’t because we didn’t have the space or the facility. Now we have the space and the facility, now we have to walk the walk.”
TU’s Office of Campus Recreation is ready to celebrate Burdick’s Hall’s first anniversary with a celebration taking place on Wednesday, January 30 from 12-1 p.m. in the Campus Rec Gallery. There will be treats, raffle prizes, giveaways, and more.