It could be a student center. It could be an admissions office.

But instead, Hemenway Gymnasium remains an athletic facility with twisting, shadowy hallways, a dank weight room next to a hissing furnace and smaller-than-regulation-size squash courts. Hemenway makes the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) look cutting edge.

Located a few hundred yards from the Science Center, Hemenway is the kind of prime real estate that money can't buy.

"Space in close proximity to Harvard Yard is more valuable than money," says David A. Zewinski '76, associate dean for physical resources and planning in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).

Even though Hemenway is used almost exclusively by Law School students and faculty members, there is no formal agreement between FAS and the Law School that guarantees the space must be used as a gym.

FAS owns the building and could put it to any use it chooses.

And while FAS seriously considered moving the office of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid to a converted Hemenway space in 1998, the building has remained an under-utilized gym despite the College's serious space crunch.

Bare Bones Facilities