The Barometer Online

Issue date: 4/1/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Cory Reed Gill Coliseum has seen many great games including this season's men's Civil War basketball game. Gill has gone through many changes through the years including the addition of new scoreboards and video screens.

OSU is still in quest of shaping up the appearance of the house that the fame of Amory T. "Slats" Gill built.

Since the time of Gill Coliseum's original inception in 1949, the building has been put to many uses, including religious events and concerts, but has seen few renovations. Most recently, there is an abatement project in progress on the building's exterior.

The abatement is a precautionary reconstruction in hopes of preventing issues of lead and asbestos before they become problematic. Shortly following the conclusion of this project, Gill Coliseum's outer walls will be freshly painted along with the installation of new windows and doors at several entrances.

"The hope is to minimize the widespread disparity between Gill and other OSU athletic facilities," said OSU's Assistant Athletic Director for Communications Steve Fenk. "Once it's all completed, the new entries and paint will be a source of pride for Beaver Nation, much like Reser Stadium and Goss Stadium have become."

On the coliseum's interior, many long-standing ideas have recently been put into action. In the summer of 2006, the men's basketball locker room was remodeled, followed by the current remodeling of the women's basketball locker room and athletic medicine facility.

"Locker rooms and medical facilities are critically important to the success of any intercollegiate program," Fenk said.

With the Horner Museum relocating out of Gill, it has enabled OSU to vastly expand facilities.

Along with these first-floor renovations, there will also be a new media room built containing a Fox Sports Network Northwest studio.

The hallways in the lower building have been remodeled with new paint and lighting fixtures periodically in the recent years, but the most noticeable aspect of these halls to a passerby are the popular student-athlete storyboards that hang throughout the facility. These pieces of artwork have been created by students, telling a story through their own portrayal.

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