NIU plans to finish renovating Chick Evans Field House by spring to ease the student traffic at the Student Recreation Center.

The $2.5 million project will include two new basketball/volleyball courts and two soccer/floor hockey fields.

A jogging area, fitness center and aerobics room also will be included in the project. Currently, the Rec is where students can work out and participate in sports activities. During busy times, often times in the evening, there is a long wait to use the equipment.

NIU space administrator Jeff Daurer said the 75,000 square feet of space at the fieldhouse will be a huge benefit to students.

“The Student Recreation Center is overcrowded at times, and the need was obvious for additional space,” Daurer said. “It will improve the quality of life on campus.”

Workers are removing the fieldhouse’s bleachers, plumbing and pipes. Walls are being knocked down where the fitness center will go.

Crews also will have to remove 50,000 square feet of flooring. The floor contains mercury and will have to be removed carefully and taken to a special dump site in Arkansas.

Once the construction phase of the project is complete, the equipment will be installed.

The additional space and new equipment will better address the needs of students, said John Sweeney, director of the Office of Campus Recreation.

“It’ll look much better and we’re getting the most of what we can space-wise.” Sweeney said.

There will be a curtain system that can divide the different courts on the main floor. A netting system will be installed to keep balls from going onto other courts. The new floor will be a smooth, synthetic surface. The facility will still be the site for physical education classes and will use existing locker rooms.

Beth Watson, a sophomore political science major, is anticipating the project’s completion.

“I think it would be nice so that at hours when most people go, it wouldn’t be practically impossible to get onto an [exercise machine] or use a particular machine that is popular,” she said.

The fieldhouse used to house Huskie basketball games and serve as a place for NIU athletic programs to practice. These programs moved to the Convocation Center when it opened in 2002.