ASUCD and Campus Recreation are currently devising a plan to renovate the Bike Barn and Outdoor Adventures building.
The building, which was originally a dairy barn built in 1910, is one of the oldest on campus. Although the building has gone through various repairs, its employees maintain that a major renovation is a necessity.
“It’s in really poor shape,” said rental manager Steve Burkel. “We have bad heating, lighting and air conditioning. The windows are still on from when it was a hog barn and they don’t even open. There’s also a lot of dry rot.”
ASUCD Senator Andre Lee, who estimates that it’s going to take approximately $100,000 to revamp the building, is leading the renovation efforts.
“Initially I just wanted to fund a new paint job and maybe new detailing on the inside,” he said. “But when I talked to the right people and [ASUCD business manager] Mark Champagne, I found out there was an audit done on the building a few years back and they came up with the $100,000 estimate.”
Lee said the building isn’t in any sort of danger or a health or safety hazard, but the aesthetics still need to be fixed up.
The project is still in its planning stages and in need of funding. So far the Student Affairs Commission has pledged $15,000.
“We’d rather not just cobble together some money and throw some paint on it to make it look better,” Champagne said. “Your cheap alternative is to scrape as much as possible, repaint and do simple touch-ups. But the insulation is almost non-existent; I think we have to take a comprehensive look at the place and really do the full renovation that the building deserves.”
Champagne is confident the group will eventually be able to gather enough funds to really fix up the building.
“The Bike Barn and Outdoor Adventures are very popular and the building is in a very visible area,” he said. “That’s to the advantage of us trying to find funds. It’s pretty obvious that the place needs it.”
Meetings on the project won’t take place until more money has been gathered, and Champagne estimates the whole undertaking won’t be completed for upwards of a year.
Robert St. Cyr, general manager at the Bike Barn, said the renovation would greatly enhance the building’s conditions and energy efficiency.
“It’s been a student-run bike shop since the 1970s,” St. Cyr said. “The building has been updated throughout the years but never to any great extent. What we’re in right now is essentially still the trunk of the tree.”
The renovations have been needed and understood for some years now, Burkel said.
ANDY VERDEROSA can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
