Previously called a multipurpose center or pavilion, the indoor recreation facility being built adjacent to Peden Stadium now has an official title: the Walter Fieldhouse.
Ohio University’s Board of Trustees will officially adopt the name for the $12.5 million facility, located at 50 South Green Dr., during its summer retreat at Columbus State Community College on Thursday, according to Ryan Lombardi, OU vice president for Student Affairs.
The field house is named after Robert and Margaret Walter, both 1967 OU graduates, who donated a lead gift of $8 million — part of a $10 million donation to OU — in December 2010.
The gift is the latest in the Walters’ line of donations that total more than $17 million to the university since 1988, according to a previous Post article.
The university began receiving $1 million annual installments from the gift in 2011. There is $10.5 million in unissued debt for the facility in the current Capital Improvement Plan, according to trustees’ agenda.
Construction for the field house began this summer, and its structure will rise in the coming weeks, according to the agenda.
Its timeline for completion was pushed back to the “first quarter of 2014,” according to the agenda. The facility was originally projected to open by fall semester 2013, according to a previous Post article.
The Walter Fieldhouse will be used for Ohio Athletics practice, intramurals, academics and other student activities.
“It’s going to help the training of our competing athletes, but is a facility that is needed for the whole university,” said Robert Walter in a previous Post interview. “It’s actually going to service the whole university and community.”
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