Construction crews are busy now so that next summer, the Erin J. Lastinger Athletics Complex will also house an aquatics center, complete with an Olympic size pool, and a two-sided athletics pavilion with room for 2,600 spectators. It will be ready for student athletes, as well as the rest of the Chapman community, for Fall Semester 2008.

But according to David Currey, Chapman’s athletics director, a nice facility isn’t enough. To him, it’s not about the field. Or the pool. Or even the seats.

It’s about building a home for athletes. And it’s about doing it right.

“We’re building it so our students can live in it,” said Currey. “I want a Chapman student to stand up tall and say ‘My school is the best.’”

The Baldwin Family Pavilion will be a two story building, housing weight rooms, offices for coaches and administration, locker rooms, and other types of training rooms.

“Since we were adjacent to the chapel, we saw this as the monastery,” said James Braam, the designer of the pavilion and aquatic center, who also designed Chapman’s Beckman Hall. “It’s a courtyard building where athletes come together collectively, train, and excel.”