College of the Redwoods breaks ground on new gym, fieldhouse

College of the Redwoods Athletics began their newest facilities project on Tuesday with the school breaking ground on their new gymnasium and fieldhouse on campus.

The ground-breaking for the gym and fieldhouse comes just as the new all-purpose field is being completed on campus, which is expected to be ready for Corsairs athletic teams this fall.

In 2020, CR got a new softball field at Bear River that the Corsairs use for practice and games and in May 2024, Bear River and College of the Redwoods came to an agreement to develop a turf baseball field as well.

CRs current gymnasium was built on fault lines, which created problems for the Athletic Department.

Just last month, CRs mens basketball team had to delay a tournament after the 7.0 earthquake rocked the campus and knocked out power in the gymnasium.

The new gym will still be on campus but in a geologically safer area to limit the potential effects of earthquakes.

We all started working together, I believe it was 2015.

It was a small group of us at that time with this idea and thought but also with the realization that this funding might become available based off of our seismic testing, CRs Athletic Director Bob Brown said.

We went from the design phase to the realization that the funding was there and we went into the construction portion of it which led us to today.

College of the Redwoods had testing and inspections done by SHN and received geotechnical consulting from Crawford & Associates.

The design of the gym and fieldhouse was done by tBP Architects with Wilsey Ham serving as the construction managers on the project.

Broward Builders Inc.

will handle the projects construction thats expected to carry on through the fall of 2027.

Were really excited to work with Broward and what these buildings are going to mean to our entire Athletic Department but more importantly, all of the students at CR, Brown said.

This is beyond just the new-and-improved gym and fieldhouse but well not only be expanding the size of our classrooms and opportunities for other general population students to take those and student services like that, but community events as well.

The project will alter the campus of CR, with the new fieldhouse set to be located south of the new all-purpose field, where the current fieldhouse is right next to the current gymnasium.

The new gymnasium will be located where the old CR baseball once was, moving the schools athletics deeper into the campus.

We also want to honor the buildings that will be taken down at some point.

Theres a lot of shared common community history, CRs Assistant Athletic Director and mens basketball coach Ryan Bisio said.

Theres been some incredible moments that have been shared in this building, some incredible people who have worked their tails off and its been their lifes work to do their best to service our student-athletes in these buildings since the 60s.

Over the past decade of planning the gymnasium, there were moments of uncertainty with all of the logistics that come along with a project of this magnitude.

There were times where we were wondering if it was ever actually going to come to fruition, Brown said.

These two buildings are being funded through the state because of the seismic challenges that we have with the current Physical Education building and fieldhouse.

Theres different rules that go along with that and different regulations that weve had to work through.

Not only will the new facilities give student-athletes state-of-the-art facilities but it will also be much safer than the current facilities on campus.

The modernization of these buildings and knowing that theyre going to be safe facilities and knowing that theyre going to be built with the idea that theyll be able to withstand these types of things adds a whole other layer of security, Brown said.

Theres a lot that has transpired in those two buildings behind me over the course of these last 50 years.

We very much value that, all of what our predecessors brought to it but we also knew it was time to be able to go to that next phase and the need that was there.

Dylan McNeill can be reached at 707-441-0526..

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