After almost two years of construction, Denison University’s $38.5 million renovation and expansion of its Mitchell Center athletics facility will be complete with the opening of the Crown Fitness Center on Monday, Aug. 26. The 8,000 square-foot facility will offer more than 100 pieces of equipment, including treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, rowers, climbers, strength equipment and free weights.
Janet Crown, a member of the Denison Class of 1985 and owner of Burn 60 Fitness Studios in Brentwood, Calif., led the support for the Crown Fitness Center. Among her other interests, Crown is a founding member of The Painted Turtle, a Paul Newman Hole-in-the-Wall Gang Camp for chronic and terminally ill children. Crown also is a member of the Denison’s Board of Trustees.
“We extend our sincere appreciation to Janet Crown for her generosity, expertise and vision,” says Nan Carney-DeBord, director of athletics at Denison. “The Crown Fitness Center is a state-of-the-art facility that will serve the entire Denison community.” She adds, “At Denison, we support the development of both the mind and the body. We recognize the importance of team building, leadership opportunities and persistence that a strong athletics, physical education and recreation program fosters, and the positive effect that a healthy body has on our mental processes. We are extremely excited about this incredible space.”
The original 1949 building has been renovated and expanded several times, most recently in 1994, when the new section was named for the late Louis A. Mitchell, a member of the Denison Class of 1957, Life Trustee and generous donor to the project. Mitchell also led the current expansion of the Mitchell Center, which includes the Trumbull Aquatics Center, opened in the fall of 2016, and now the Crown Fitness Center. The entire project has been constructed according to the LEED standards, a national benchmark for sustainable design by the U.S. Green Building Council.
Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling about 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement, and the cultivation of independent thinking.