The Payne Whitney Gymnasium is the

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational i ...

nasium of

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

. One of the largest athletic facilities ever built, its twelve acres of interior space include a nine-story tower containing a third-floor

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

, fencing facilities, and a

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small ha ...

practice room. The building houses the facilities of many

varsity teams In most English-speaking countries, varsity is an abbreviation of the word ''university''. In the United States and Canada, the term is mostly used in relation to sports teams. Varsity in the United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, varsity team ...

at Yale, including basketball, fencing, gymnastics, squash, swimming, and volleyball. It is the second-largest gym in the world by cubic feet. The building was donated to Yale by

John Hay Whitney John Hay Whitney (August 17, 1904 – February 8, 1982) was U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the ''New York Herald Tribune'', and president of the Museum of Modern Art. He was a member of the Whitney family. Early life Whit ...

, of the Yale class of 1926, in honor of his father,

Payne Whitney William Payne Whitney (March 20, 1876 – May 25, 1927) was an American businessman and member of the influential Whitney family. He inherited a fortune and enlarged it through business dealings, then devoted much of his money and efforts to ...

. Because it was designed in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style that prevailed at Yale between 1920 and 1945, it is commonly known as "the cathedral of sweat". For the design of Payne Whitney Gymnasium, architect John Russell Pope was awarded the Silver Medal at the 1932 Olympic Games Art Competition. The stuffed original Handsome Dan, the

bulldog The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is of medium size, a muscular, hefty dog with a wrinkled face and a distinctive pushed-in nose.mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as ...

of Yale and the first college mascot in the United States, resides in a glass cabinet near the entrance to the building.

Facilities

The basketball team plays in the John J. Lee Amphitheater, which was named in 1996 for John J. Lee, '56 M.Eng., a star basketball player and benefactor in restoration projects; the volleyball and gymnastics teams also compete in the Amphiteater. The wing opposite the Amphiteater houses the

Robert J. H. Kiphuth Robert John Herman Kiphuth (November 17, 1890 – January 7, 1967) was an American swimming coach and college athletics administrator. He served as the head men's swimming coach at Yale University for 41 years, from 1918 to 1959. During his tenure ...

Exhibition Pool (6 lanes, 25 yards), where the swimming teams compete. The pool is named for Yale's legendary swimming coach and athletic director. A series of three crew tanks runs along the back of the gym, providing training facilities for the crews. Above the crew tanks is the Practice Pool, one of the world's largest suspended natatoriums (5 lanes, 50 meters, 2 bulkheads). Above the Practice Pool are recreational basketball courts. On the wings, the Adrian "Ace" Israel Fitness Center is located above the Kiphuth Exhibition Pool, and the Brady Squash Center is located above the Amphitheater. The Squash Center, one of the world's premier competition facilities, is also home to the U.S. Squash Hall of Fame. The roof of the Squash Center has a small outdoor running track. The tower itself contains the Kiphuth Trophy Room (where mementos from Harvard-Yale game balls to Olympic gold medals are displayed), several multi-purpose recreational areas, the fencing salon, and the gymnastics studio. The Lanman Center, located behind the Amphitheater wing, provides a vast spread of additional flexible floor space, with a balcony running track ringing the facility.

Renovation

File:KiphuthPool.jpg, Exhibition pool File:Payne Whitney Gymnasium practice pool.jpg, Practice pool File:Payne-whitney-squash.jpg, Squash courts File:Payne-whitney-exercise.jpg, Fitness center File:Payne-whitney-exercise2.jpg, Fitness center lanman-center-yale-gym

The William K. Lanman Center was added in 1999 as a new wing, with additional courts for basketball and volleyball, and an indoor running track. This was the first phase of a $100 million renovation program. In 2006 the building was having external work done to repair flashing and stop leaks. Other work included the purchasing of banners and benches for the Kiphuth Exhibition Pool, the resurfacing of the floor in the Lee Amphitheater, and the upgrading of the Practice Pool's filtration system.

References

External links

Payne Whitney Gym at Yale.edu
{{Ivy League basketball venue navbox Yale University buildings Sports venues in New Haven, Connecticut College basketball venues in the United States Basketball venues in Connecticut Yale Bulldogs men's basketball Towers in Connecticut zh:佩恩·惠特尼体育馆

Facilities

Renovation

See also

References

External links