Santa Barbara City College moves forward with plan to replace old sports pavilion with a new one

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Santa Barbara City College athletes will soon have a new sports pavilion.

The old one will get the wrecking ball.

The building was built in 1965, before Title 9 ushered in women's sports.

Lyndsay Maas, the Vice President of Business Services said they did the math, and remodeling the old building won't save the state money.

"So our district has done a lot of analysis and work on that topic when we went to request funds from the state for this project that was a part of the work we had to justify with them to explain that if we take the current building the way it is, it has a lot of structural deficiencies that need to be improved to bring the building up to current seismic code and to do that we would have to do a lot of work that would be quite expensive. We analyzed the cost of what that would be compared to tearing down the building and starting all over, and believe it or not doing that would be quite expensive pretty much the same cost as tearing down the building and having a brand new building, " said Maas.

She said there are advantages to a new building. She said the old building has failing infrastructure and water intrusion due to a retraining wall with deteriorating waterproofing.

"If we were to just take the same amount of money and just repair this current building we are still left at the end of the day with an old building that doesn't quite work with ADA access. With a brand new building we will be able to design something that works better, fits better for us, provides us some access to the beautiful ocean views we have here, so we can have classrooms, a life fitness center where you can sit on a spin bike and look out at the ocean instead of where it is located right now where it is looking up against a dirt wall and you really have an issue with just trying to compare old buildings. A lot of us want to do that with our homes, it seems like a great thing to do, but you're still stuck with an old building that has aging maintenance equipment and water institution issued by continuing to replace and replace."

Architect Steve Key of LPA Inc. in Irvine, California said, "It is very exciting to be part of a project that is very forefront to the community. It is a community asset right on the forefront of the beach and the stadium. We are able to bring an identity right to the front door, that is an exciting statement we can do with the architecture while also creating a building that is fulling the education needs of the college."

They hope to blend Santa Barbara's Spanish style into the look. The design phase should be compete by September.

The permitting and bidding phases will follow.

Football players can't wait. They like the idea of having windows with ocean views and more space indoors and out.

Ryan Casias said he has seen his coach putting out buckets to deal with leaks and damage.

Isaac Jimenez said it will attract athletes to the campus.

"They should get a new facility all around it will be better less leaks or no leaks at all ."

The $40 million project will be up to current seismic and accessibility codes and it will be high tech.

If all goes as planned, construction could be complete in 2023.