The third and final set of renovations on the Smith Center began in late April and will continue throughout the summer, finishing the $43 million reconstruction project that started in 2009.

Phase three of the renovations focuses on both exterior and interior elements of the 35-year-old stadium, completing the visual transformation of the facility that serves as the home for GW’s Division I basketball, volleyball and water polo players as well as its varsity swimmers and gymnasts.

Highlights of phase three will include a new glass facade for the exterior of the Smith Center along with new concession areas, a new box office, new bathrooms, and a new all-video, high-definition scoreboard.

The renovations, said Associate Athletic Director for Facilities Jason Wilson, are designed to create a look for the Smith Center that is both “contemporary” and “ageless,” allowing the University to avoid major renovations in the future. Once phase three is completed, he said, the building will finally take on its new look, both inside and out.

“This design is gonna be one that I think, everyone on this campus, every alum that we’ve ever had, they’re gonna be so proud of this building,” Wilson said. “This is where everyone will actually visualize the transformation, whether they’re inside or outside,” he added.

Other aspects of phase three will be the newly designed entrances that will be more formal than the previous ones, which Wilson described as an “exit door that we prop open and create an entrance.” The Smith Center’s auxiliary gyms will also receive new playing surfaces, something Wilson said would benefit the various club teams that also utilize the facility for their practices.

The renovations will also bring the Smith Center into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The act was not enacted until 15 years after the initial construction of the Smith Center so the building was grandfathered in. will Once the bathrooms are made more accessible and ramps are reconstructed with gentler inclines the building will meet the modern standards.

While much of the more conspicuous work this summer has been on the exterior of the building, it was the interior that was the sole focus of the second phase of the renovation process this time last summer.

The varsity locker rooms were all replaced, the sports medicine and academic centers were both expanded greatly, and the court and lighting systems were both replaced as part of a process that began almost immediately following the conclusion of the 2008-2009 basketball season.

Phase two also saw the construction of the Colonials’ Club, a hospitality area for top donors. Spectator seating in the basketball arena was replaced, and the natatorium received a face-lift highlighted by a GW logo mosaic made from laser-cut tiles behind the seating area.

The renovations, products of a pledge by the Smith-Kogod Foundation to match donations for the Smith Center up to $10 million, will run the University an estimated $43 million, $25 million of which is funded by donations. Wilson said that while the newly improved Smith Center has been a major step up for the University, GW was limited in what it could do with the building.

“Being in DC, we’re a little restricted due to zoning and the neighbors and things like that,” Wilson said. “We wish that we could have expanded, grew up, but that wasn’t possible. But with what we could do, we’re getting the best of the best. I think that everyone is gonna be extremely pleased when we’re all done.”

With the newly renovated Smith Center’s first event, University Convocation, scheduled for Aug. 29, Wilson said that the renovation schedule has been tight. Offices in the Smith Center have remained open and operating, even as jackhammers and cranes tear away at the building’s exterior. All the noise and dust will pay off though, he said, once the finished product is on display for the GW community.

“Whether it’s a student, whether it’s an alum, whether it’s a parent, faculty, staff, everyone that comes to an event here whether it’s commencement, convocation, basketball.they’re gonna have a much better experience overall,” Wilson said. “As you’re walking up to the building, and you see the lights kind of gleaming out of the glass fa?ade on 22nd street, you’re gonna say ‘wow.'”