Pitt’s new Rec Center finally opened on Sept. 14 for student use, and despite the $240 million price tag, it hasn’t impressed me. 

The 270,000-square-foot nine-story building includes a pool, gaming room, tennis and pickleball courts, climbing wall and six floors of weight lifting equipment. While this description sounds impressive, once you spend time in the building, it quickly becomes obvious that realistic and accessible design was not a priority during the planning and construction process. Although the facility will be used almost exclusively by students — faculty have to pay to use it — our wants and needs were not taken into account. It feels as though impressing potential students and donors was the main objective when designing the building.

Additionally, Pitt has shut down almost every other gym on campus — Trees, Bellefield, the Pete — when the 2025-2026 school year began, leaving us with nowhere to exercise until the grand opening and now concentrating everyone in the Rec Center. 

Of all the gyms I have used in my four years of working out — Planet Fitness, LA Fitness, the Pete, my local club gym, etc. — this one is by far the most confusing and least user friendly. I find it nearly impossible to explain its issues while making sense. 

On Thursday, I decided to test out the new facility, making note of its accessibility as I did my normal workout, which was glutes and hamstrings.

The entrance is on O’Hara Street, across from Benedum Hall. The “hillside entrance” is still under construction, but when finished, it will allow direct entrance into the fifth floor from upper campus. There is no stairwell that can be used from the ground floor, except for an emergency exit that is wired to an alarm. The three elevators on the ground floor only go to the fifth and eighth floors. To actually enter the recreation center, you have to go through the fifth floor, which is where you scan in and then can get access to all the other floors. The fifth floor is empty aside from a pool entrance, changing area and lounge with couches and a shuffleboard table. The pool has five lanes, which seems too few for the number of people using the facility. The changing room is not designated by gender like most gyms, but rather has gender neutral bathrooms, showers and lockers. There are another set of two elevators within the recreation facility that go to all the other floors. I have yet to use them, but I have heard that they are slow and usually have a line. 

There is gym equipment on floors two through seven, but there is no distinction between the levels. It is not organized by free weights, use — upper, lower, cardio, etc. — or any obvious system. Five floors sounds like a lot of room for our growing student population, but in reality it’s not as full as it sounds — each floor shares the space with another area. For example, the gaming lab, dance studio, turf and rock wall all share spaces with workout areas, and the rock wall extends through two floors. 

I usually stretch on the turf area which is on floor three, but this floor also includes cardio machines, a speed ramp, some machines and cables. For convenience’s sake, I warm up with hip abductors after I stretch rather than coming back later. I have also noticed that the only pec/rear delt fly machine is on this floor, which is a popular machine and usually has a line.

I went to floor two to say hi to a friend who was in a small alcove dedicated to arms. This slightly separated area has barbells, dumbbells up to 100 pounds, benches and preacher curls. The floor also has squat racks, two smith machines, cables, free weight leg machines and an “impact room” with other small equipment. 

Afterwards, I had to walk to the seventh floor from the second to do hip thrusts and glute extensions. There are more treadmills up there as well, along with a hack squat, leg extension and leg press — which are probably my favorite machines in the building. Walking up five flights of stairs while hitting legs is literal torture, which is one of my biggest problems with the facility. It feels like whoever designed the building did not understand that gym users would hate having to do this and thus couldn’t plan ahead.

I visited the floors I had not been to yet just to check them out. The fourth floor has two climbing/bouldering walls, a spin studio, cardio machines, squat racks and free weight machines. Floor six has an overlook of the pool, some seating, pickleball courts, a hole in the ground where the rock wall emerges from the floor below, some treadmills and random machines. Floors eight and nine are taken up by four basketball courts, a sky track which has only three lanes and a small stretching area.

I find it impossible to stop myself from asking never-ending questions about the logic behind the setup when I am working out. Why not make a dedicated “cardio floor” rather than scatter 10-15 treadmills and stairmasters on each floor? Wouldn’t it make more sense to have the computer lab, spin room, rock wall and other non-weightlifting areas on one or two designated floors so there is one less story that people have to climb? Why can’t we scan in on the ground floor and have elevators that go to every story? Why is there only one emergency exit for such a massive building and no stairwell that accesses the ground floor without the alarm going off?

The endless questions about the layout ultimately boil down to a single disappointing answer — the user was not the client. When the primary goal is creating a list of impressive features, logic p— like grouping similar equipment or ensuring accessible flow — becomes an afterthought. It may look spectacular on a pamphlet or promotional video, but its illogical layout proves it was designed for a photo op, not a leg day.

Harper is a political science major and Philadelphia native. Email her at [email protected].