Marquette opened its new Wellness + Helfaer Recreation facility, a 195,000-square-foot re-imagining of health, wellness, and recreation services on campus, on Jan. 13, the first day of the 2025 spring semester.
Wellness + Helfaer Recreation facts
- Construction began: December 2022
- Open to students: Monday, Jan. 13, 2025
- Square footage: 195,000 GSF
- Builder: J.H. Findorff & Son Inc.
Located on the southwestern portion of campus near student housing, the Wellness + Helfaer Recreation facility is home to Campus Recreation, the Marquette University Medical Clinic, the Center for Student Wellness and Health Promotion, and the Counseling Center, for the first time bringing these areas from varied corners of campus into one place, allowing Marquette to comprehensively serve students’ well-being.
Wellness + Helfaer Recreation provides a continuum of wellness services that are integrative, inclusive, accessible and responsive to the changing needs of the campus community.
“We are excited that the time has finally come to unveil the new Wellness + Helfaer Recreation facility to our students and campus community,” Marquette University President Kimo Ah Yun said. “Wellness + Helfaer Recreation provides a destination on campus that supports the physical and mental health needs of the Marquette community. Our goal is for this facility to foster community, inclusiveness and engagement, and break down stigmas and barriers to get the care they need.”
Our goal is for this facility to foster community, inclusiveness and engagement, and break down stigmas and barriers to get the care (students) need.
President Kimo Ah Yun
The reimagined facility features a 25% increase in recreational space and nearly doubles the wellness and medical space previously offered on campus. A new, 30,000-square-foot, centralized three-story wellness tower integrates the university’s student health, wellness and recreation services. The third and fourth floors of the new facility’s wellness tower are named the “LOVELLSTRONG Center for Student Well-Being” in recognition of the late President Michael Lovell’s and Amy Lovell’s tremendous leadership and commitment to address mental health across Milwaukee and the region.
What’s new in the Wellness + Helfaer Recreation facility:
- Campus recreation has four regulation size basketball courts and two multi-purpose courts; four tennis courts; two group exercise studios; a spin studio; a six-lane, 25-yard swimming pool; and a 1/8 mile running track that overlooks the lobby and basketball and multipurpose courts.
- The Student Medical Clinic includes exam rooms; observation rooms; treatment rooms; immunization rooms; and a dedicated x-ray.
- Within the LOVELLStrong Center for Student Well-Being:
- The Wellness Program has gathering spaces; large-group counseling spaces; private counseling offices; a meditation room; and a group activity center.
- Within the Counseling Center there are large-group counseling spaces, private offices, and an updated “Zen Den” and quiet spaces.
- Other features include a main lobby gathering and study area, reservable multi-purpose room, and a third-level outdoor terrace.
The reimagined Wellness + Helfaer Recreation facility project took root in December 2021 when President Lovell announced that an anonymous alumni couple launched a $10 million giving challenge to transform and integrate the university’s student health, wellness and recreation services. The project was approved by the Board of Trustees on Dec. 2, 2022, and construction began later that month.
Sustainability at work
The Wellness + Helfaer Recreation facility is the fourth and final capital project to come online since the start of the fall semester — along with the Lemonis Center for Student Success; David A. Straz Jr. Hall, the home of the College of Nursing; and renovation of Chapel of the Holy Family, the Marquette community’s primary worship space. Each of these projects represent an investment in an existing building, adaptively reusing an existing building in the heart of campus and transforming it into something state-of-the-art intended to elevate the student experience.
