Penn State Football: Lasch Building Weight Room Expansion Slowed But Still Due for Completion Soon

Penn State football’s Lasch Building renovations and weight room expansion are slated to be completed soon, but according to head coach James Franklin, it might not quite be entirely done by the time the season starts.

“We’re in the training room, which is really nice,” Franklin said after practice on Wednesday. “We’re really pleased with it. That was the priority. We basically had to choose to be able to get into it — we couldn’t function with the training room the way we had it in the spring. So we were able to get that done. It’s not like, totally done but it’s done enough that we can get into it.”

As for the weight room, a program spokesperson told StateCollege.com recently that there was optimism that the expansion project would be completed by the start of the season. That said, as media attended a portion of Wednesday’s practice, the weight room expansion was visibly incomplete with little sign that the interior was any closer to completion than the outside of the building.

All the same the Nittany Lions are still able to workout in a makeshift facility at Holuba Hall just across the parking lot. The football team, among other Penn State programs, have been working out there for the better part of the past year.

“The weight room we still have some some work to do,” Franklin added. “And then again, we kind of staggered it. So the back lobby and nutrition bar, that’s going to be the last [thing to be finished]. But I don’t have exact dates because, as we all know, all over the country and all over the world there’s things that are coming in a little bit slower — back orders and things like that — but based on the schedule, I think we’ll be alright. Because we can still do the weight room [over at Holuba Hall].”

The project which is the most noticeable change to the Lasch Building in recent years and the first of a two-phase, $48 million project that will feature internal and external upgrades throughout the building. The second phase of the project recent went out to bid.