The proposed alumni center will take the place of the UST gym near the P. Noval gate.

IN THREE years, UST alumni will finally have a place on campus they can call their own.

The Office for Alumni Relations is pursuing a plan to establish a four-story alumni center as part of the University’s quadricentennial celebration in 2011.

The center will occupy the UST gym, whose façade will be retained, while a new gym will be constructed beside the multi-deck carpark.

Alumni Relations Director Evelyn Songco said the center would serve as a multi-function building for alumni events, and would have lodging rooms for visiting alumni.

Officials have yet to finalize the number of lodging and function rooms. The rooms will be named after alumni donors. Details of the renovation are still being discussed and the contractor has yet to be selected.

The UST swimming pool, the first Olympic-sized swimming pool in Asia, will still be part of the alumni center and will be refurbished.

“The conservationists in the University suggested that the façade should remain because it is one of the oldest buildings in the campus,” said Songco.

The UST gym was opened in 1932, five years after the University moved from Intramuros to España Street.

“[The center is for the] benefit of our alumni, but the students can also use it. However, the students will have to pay for the use of facilities,” Songco said.

The design for the center was chosen by the UST administration from seven winners in a competition among students organized by the College of Architecture in 2008. Abelardo Tolentino Jr., outstanding Thomasian alumni for Architecture, worked on the design to produce the final blueprint. Jennifer Ann G. Ambanta

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1 COMMENT

  1. Abelardo Tolentino, Jr. is listed as architect of TAC on Wikipepedia, I thought 3 students fro the College of Architecture won the design not seven, how come their names are not mentioned.

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