Outdoor Recreation Georgia Tech

Incredible! The students of GT are very fortunate to have such an amazing place to get some exercise. A lazy river, come on, that’s just awesome.

World class facility for swimming. Plenty of bleacher seating and press box type seating up on top with power. Biggest complaints are no free wifi and narrow seating rows. Nice café in the lobby with smoothies desserts and sandwiches. Traffic is a cluster at arrival times but plenty of parking. Close enough to walk or take the free campus trolley to eat etc.

It looks spectacular but you have to be affiliated with the school in order to use it. What a shame.

I’m confused — I’ve read here that you DON’T have to be affiliated with GA Tech to use the facilities, however when I called, they said it is only accessible for students and staff. Am I missing something?

This is an unbelievably amazing recreation center. My brother just came here for graduate school and I was helping him move in. When he showed me this structure, it blew my mind away. Apparently this was built for the Olympics in 1996 for all the people using a pool. Just drive by and take a look and you’ll likely be just as impressed as I was. Huge swimming pool and beautiful architecture. Need I say more?

I’m still looking for the perfect outdoor pool in Atlanta until the St. Regis allows me to grace them with my presence. Until that day comes, Tech will do.
My socialite dreams aside, Georgia Tech has a pretty amazing facility, with all the newest and best gym equipment, long hours so you’re never waiting to work out and most importantly it’s clean. The eye candy, not what you’ll see at other gyms but hey, if you’re there to cruise I think you’re in the wrong venue.
Contrary to popular belief, you can work out here if you’re not a Tech student. I’m married to a Tech man so I get a sweeter deal than most but you can use the facility for a pretty fair fee even if you don’t have an in. If you do have friend\family\someone who owes you a favor, the price to workout seems too good to be true.
The staff here is helpful overall, those work study salaries don’t really motivate many to hustle so don’t expect a high level of personalization but for me it’s perfect. I don’t do well with the gym attendents that peer pressure you to sign up for personal training.
There’s a rock climbing wall, a track upstairs, a waterslide and amazing classes you pay a little bit extra for. If you have wee ones or grew up inland, you can take swimming lessons. Basically there is literally something for everyone here whether you want to train for a marathon or like me, sit in the hot-​tub and pretend it’s necessary for your «training». In my humble opinion, this gym is one of the greatest deals in town.

If you want Olympic class (everything), come here.
Weights and machines: Awesome. Always packed at the beginning of the semesters because the students have a little time then. Sooner or later, the students get wiped out by classes and the need to study. Busiest times tend to be right after dinner.
Pools: Nothing but the best in all the Southeast. There’s 50m lanes (Typically split into 2×25m. Diving well. More lanes in the leisure pool. Fun pool with water slide. Area outside to tan. Sauna. Hot tub. WHAT IN THE WORLD DO YOU WANT MORE!!!
Squash courts for those who are big fans.
Pretty good rock climbing wall, and they offer classes and are friendly easy going student staff.
Upstairs, there are basketball courts (6) which can be converted to volleyball or badminton. Couple rooms where people do dance or martial arts or spinning or anything they can think of. Indoor soccer field. Ping pong room. You can check out most of the equipment.
Go up a little more and there is a short track, some erg machines and various misc. machines. Check the day to know which direction to run!

I recently joined this gym when I moved to GA. Has everything I need and the price is more than fair. I didn’t want to intrude on all of the students (it’s a pain when people from the community are always invading your campus. I learned this during my time in undergrad) so I try to go during the day when they’re in class

Most of Georgia Tech is dedicated to learning about submicron waveguide effects, astrotelemetry, thermohydraulic performance, and other everyday items that people plain don’t realize *are* everyday items. This part is different. This part of Georgia Tech is dedicated to *endorphins*.
This is not a wimpy gym, but it’s very accepting of wimpy people like me. You’re as likely to see t-​shirts covering every era and series of Star Trek as frat shirts. The latter are there, particularly the first week of any semester, but even then they show engineering ingenuity. How the hell can you pop the collar of a t-​shirt!!! And the full span of faculty ages work out here as well.
I cause myself pain here almost every weekday morning. About half the days are spent beating myself up with cardio and weights. The ellipticals and stationary bikes provide a good range of options. There are those with TVs (ew), and those without. There are ellipticals that show each stride’s range. There also are stair masters, the upper-​body ellipitcal-​like thing, etc. Almost all have all their functionality. Sometimes one’s a little out of whack, but nothing like those of us who use them. Check where the pregnant women work. Seriously. They wipe the floor with most of us. Watch where they go, because they’ll show you what’s working best. And they’ll make you feel like an utter wimp, even if you’re one of the ROTC kids.
The weights also span a wide range. There are free weights (I’m clueless), cables (I’m still clueless), semi-​cable-​ish (getting there), and the fully guided simple weight machines (my category). If you’re there «off-​hours» (mornings, and pretty much any time once we start crushing the students with work, MUAHAHAHAHAHA), there’s little to no wait. If there’s a wait, just switch to circuit training and you’ll be better than fine (and look it, too).
The other mornings? I make a fool of myself in the pools. Typically the «recreation» pool, where real swimmers practice and are polite enough not to laugh at me. The recreation pool’s comfortable and still permits serious workouts. The competition pool (’96 Olympics, Michael Phelps, etc.) bottoms out somewhere in the south Pacific. It’s scary. In a good way. I’m all sorts of proud of myself for managing it a few times. And there are spas. Perfect for that cool down phase after «working out.» Really.
There’s an indoor track, etc. But real running scares me. I’ll stick to my fake, feel-​good running TYVM. And there’s a sauna, but I am old and out of that category.

If only we’d had CRC instead of SAC when I was a student… the upper gym with jogging track had opened in my last year, but it wasn’t until I was an alumna member for one fall that I got to fully appreciate the space. I already like the jogging track, with its awesome view of the city, and the nice padding. It’s a decent enough size for an indoor track. Even though they have «rules» posted that talk about faster people towards the center and which direction to go on which days, there’s a lot of room for improvement in regards to courtesy of others.
The alumni deal is pretty sweet, particularly for a couple. I think it was only costing us $ 45 a month, for 2 people. We’d go early in the morning and park on Tech Parkway (never got a ticket). I was always surprised at how busy it was that early in the morning (5:30), but there are a good number of campus employees using it at that time.
The cardio theater is impressive, with each machine having its own TV tied into the campus network. There are lots of weight machines, free weights, bosu balls, and even plenty of space off to the sides for stretching and calisthenics. There’s even a climbing wall.
There’s the Olympic pool, now enclosed (it was wide open for the ’96 Olympics, and stayed that way when it was part of SAC), the diving well with 3 and 10m platforms, as well as a handful of 3 and 1 m springboards. You’re able to swim laps in this pool most of the time that there isn’t swim practice, just be sure to check the schedule on the locker room doors. There’s also the recreation pool, complete with a lazy river. For me the best part of the aquatic facilities is that they’re not chlorinated — they use an alternative method of keeping them sanitized, so you don’t smell like chlorine after having showered and sweated and showered again like you can after using many other public pools.
The locker room facilities are pretty good. I don’t think the alumni can get a permanent locker assignment, so I had to lug my toiletries and my own personal lock every single day, which was pretty annoying. The mirror space is limited, as is the bench space, and the lighting isn’t the best, but the facilities and clean and well-​maintained. There is towel service — you get a towel by scanning your BuzzCard the same way you’d check out other equipment.
#Yelp365 — ²²⁴⁄₃₆₅

I’ve been there a few times for events and its been ok but based on friends that go there and the news its not a safe place at night. Thats the only reason I gave it three stars and not 4. Since I haven’t had my own issues I won’t negatively rate it. I will say that its really full of hills. It’s not a good walking campus for those in the 200lb plus club.

I’m a pretty big fan of the CRC. The facility itself is expansive, clean, and well organized. The gym (weight room) is where I spend most of my time, and I’ve never seen it messy. I have, however, seen it extremely busy. Avoid going during the first 2 weeks of class and right before spring break. Other than those few weeks the gym is pretty empty the rest of the year. The pool/​hot tub is really nice and never looks that crowded. Several other amenities such as basketball courts, ping pong tables, rock walls, etc. are there is well. Chances are you will like it and it will have something to meet your needs.
The faculty rate is about $ 220 per year. The parking lot is free to all buzz card holders berfore 8am and after 5pm.

Upon entering:
flash and scan your buzzcard, $ 5 for guests
What it has:
1 pool +slide with adjacent hot tub and small swim lane
1 Olympic sized pool (yeah, Phelps swam here)
1^st floor: tons of equipment, ellipses, a rock climbing wall, and
treadmills
4^th floor: basketball courts, ping pong courts, boxing thing, studio space (hell yeah dancers!!)
(Space is either first come first served, some of them get bitchy if you are in their space, so try to reserve through John Hart… also Studio B is off limits unless you are an instructer. Studio A is your best choice)
5^th: track with a water fountain, ellipses, crew rowing machines, stretching mat, and some misc equipment
I’ve had some beef with getting studio space, but whatever.
The CRC is awesome.

The recreational pool is pretty sweet, but there are a little too many little kids running around everywhere here during the summer. The hot tub, outdoor tanning area and 3 story slide are awesome.
Most of the weights are on the basement floor, the TVs on the cardio equiptment are awesome, I think you can plug your Ipod to them as well. I’m not a fan of the fact that you have to use ur Buzzcard to check out equipment like medicine and bosu balls. I wish they had weighted barbells and quick release clips. I want to learn how to play squash sometime, because the courts there look sweet.
On the 5^th floor they have a track that you have to go around 6.7 times for a mile.
Also the smoothie bar is never open during the summer, which makes post-​workout meals a little more difficult. But all in all, a great place!

The CRC is one of the few things this school has that’s practically perfect, alongside it’s academics.
To begin with, since it was built for the 1996 Olympics, it has a legit Olympic competition length pool, which is apparently one of the few around since many swimming meets are held here, and a diving pool right next to it with 3 diving boards besides the floor level one. And if that wasn’t enough, there’s a whole other side with another big recreational pool with a smaller area for laps, a lazy river, a Jacuzzi and a slide. Yes, a legit Jacuzzi of decent size. And yes, a freakin SLIDE. Can anyone say their school had a slide at their pool? Now you may think that’s childish, but when you’re faced with 3 exams and you need to take a study break, what better way to release stress is there than this?!
Aquatics aside, there are tons of machines on the ground floor. Basically everything your standard gym would have, except 5 times as much variety and quantity. Not to mention they have dumbbells from 2.5 to 150, good quality ones that don’t rust, and multiple ones of each. And what I LOVE about the dumbbell areas is that 90% of the users PUT EVERYTHING BACK WHERE IT GOES. Clearly a sense of community. In the same area you have a long line of treadmills and ellipticals and like 3 other kinds of the same cardio machines, most of which are equipped with cable TV and audio jacks. I don’t even like running but sometimes I do so just because I can watch shows while I do!
In the same vicinity you have the 5 racquetball courts fenced off by walls of glass, and a full 3 or 4 story rock climbing wall and a freeclimbing wall. Then upstairs on the 4^th floor there are a couple studios, which by the way are practically soundproof, where there are usually classes, such as yoga, breakdancing, salsa, swing, etc. There are also several basketball court areas side by side, and covers from the roof to divide the area into 2 or 3 if need be so that people can play basketball next to volleyball next to badminton. There’s also an indoor soccer area in between the studios on the right side, and across from that on the other side, a smaller ping pong area with 3 tables. On the corners there are a few punching bags, and there’s an area where the staff lends you equipment if you don’t happen to have raquets/​basketballs/​pingpong balls/​etc. Finally, on the top floor, there’s a padded running track with 2 large digital clocks visible from any part of the track to keep your time, and some more cardio equipment on the side of the track.
Overall, this huge and spectacularly maintained gym has everything and anything you might want, and even stuff you wouldn’t consider. It’s basically only for students, and alumni can pay a minimal fee to use it as well, which I will definitely take advantage of in the near future if I live here.

Good:
— Cheap. $ 30/​month, 3 months minimum (alumni rate).
— 4 swimming pools and yea there’s the water slide too.
— Very attentive lifeguards.
— Personal trainers (I don’t know if they’re good or not).
— Racquetball & Squash Courts.
— Complete cardio equipment with personal tvs. I usually watch MTVu. I know… I know… I don’t like MTV either, but this is different. MTVu actually plays music videos instead of the reality shows, and I can expect to see Peter Bjorn and John and Rilo Kiley here. Here as in MTVu, not in CRC.
— OK where was I? Oh equipment. Yes lots of options for weight lifting also.
— Clean and no wet or sticky equipment from the previous person.
Not so much:
— Tricky parking if you don’t have a parking pass. I don’t have one, but I manage to find good spots and not get a ticket from the parking nazis. Early am is the best time to find «free» parking.
— Classes are not free.

Cool… We can review anything on Unilocal!
I love this gym!!! I pay $ 27 a month (staff rate) and I am actually motivated to workout when I come here. I enjoy the rec pool (i am actually going to do some laps in a few minutes). I have tried the personal trainers and they are cool and fun! The sauna is great! And I never feel like a fat cow when I go workout because luckily every time I’ve gone there’s been at least one person fatter than me! … That’s important when choosing a gym.

Forget losing weight, have fun instead.
Georgia Tech has got something good for you at the CRC (Campus Recreation Center). This amazing recreational and athletic facility has everything you could ever want to use/​do to work your body into shape. If you are in anyway connected to Georgia Tech (student, alumni, faculty, staff, spouse of a faculty or staff) you can join as a member.
So aside from a 3 story tall water slide, indoor rock climbing wall, hot tubs, a sauna, indoor running track, racquet ball courts, and the 1996 Olympic pool, they have cardio equipment with personal televisions with over 100 stations in all different languages (elliptical and Oprah at 4) and numerous sets of weight lifting equipment. You never have to wait in line for anything unless it’s New Years resolution season.
You can check out sports equipment and shoot some hoops or join in on a yoga class or hip hop dance lesson. You can also rent personal lockers to keep your stinky gym shoes in (yuck!). The staff does a great job keeping the facility clean and the equipment working.
As a student there, I prefer to swim laps in the recreational pool and find the fellow swimmers friendly and supportive. And nothing is better than sitting in the hot tub or sauna on a Friday afternoon after a hard weeks work.