Philips (Jesse) Physical Education Center

Date

1971-present

Location

200 Woodland Street

Architects/Collaborators

Hugh Stubbins & Associates, Cambridge, MA (architects)
Mosser Construction Company, Fremont, OH (contractors)

Style

Modern

History

The Jesse Philips Physical Education Center, a 115,000-square-foot facility, was designed as a modern replacement for the 1901 Warner Gymnasium (now the Warner Center for Performing Arts). Philips gymnasium is used for basketball, volleyball, and intramural and recreational activities. Other facilities in Philips include a climbing wall and bouldering cave; Carr Pool; Weight Rooms and stretching room; and racquetball and squash courts, two of which are set up for table tennis and one for indoor golf. The John W. Heisman Club Field House is linked to Philips and includes a six-lane 200-meter track and four tennis courts. Philips is also the home for the Department of Athletics & Physical Education. The building houses all the offices of Oberlin's varsity programs as well as the administration and support staff. With a variety of offerings, Philips is the sole location for the campus' recreational interests. The Recreation Center has offered paid memberships to the local community since 1978.

In October the Oberlin College Board of Trustees voted to approve the expansion of Philips Gym, which includes a new fitness center and a complete renovation of Carr Pool, to be completed August 2018.
 
Construction has already begun on the on the south side of Philips Gym where a new wellness area will be erected with several fitness rooms for varying activities ranging from yoga, spinning, TRX and dance. Additionally, other areas will house cardio equipment, new weight machines and free weights.

Sources

Geoffrey Blodgett, Oberlin Architecture, College and Town: A Guide to Its Social History (Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College, 1985), 50-51.

Oberlin College Archives, College General Records, Buildings and Dedicaitions.

"Construction Ramping Up for Health & Wellness Center," Oberlin College GoYeo.com website, 11/17/2016.