ritchie.center

One of my favorite buildings on campus is the Ritchie Center, which houses our gym, hockey arena, basketball courts, health clinic offices and, my favorite, long-course pool. I swam for seven years so I've seen my fair share of pools, but El Pomar Natatorium is definitely the nicest facility I've been in (for pictures, see my post of the swim/dive meet in January 2011). I'm not nearly good enough for the varsity team but there are a few other non-DU affiliated teams that practice there. I wish DU had a club team since I don't have enough time to join one of the existing teams, but I can still get my chlorine fix any time in one of the open lap swim lanes.


Next year, as a sophomore, I will be living in Nagel which is on the south end of campus. I can't wait to be closer to the theatre department buildings but I will definitely miss being so close to the Ritchie Center. Williams Tower (shown here) measures up at 215 feet tall and houses the bells I can hear from my room every day. As a freshman, we all got to have dinner with Chancellor Coombe at the beginning of the year, followed by climbing up the (very tall) spiral staircase to the bells. We even got to play them! The bells are controlled by a carillon, a set of 65 bronze bells. The largest one weighs six tons! Students have the opportunity to sign up to take lessons on the carillon at the beginning of the year. Not only are the bells beautiful to hear, but the glowing Williams Tower has proven to be a very convenient way for friends and I to find our way back to campus when we go on the occasional fro-yo run.