This episode marks the finale of Gyms with Jun. From the incredible wall of NCAA trophies at Roberts Pavilion to the shiny basketball court at Linde Activities Center, this series has helped me gain a greater understanding of the fitness scene at the Claremont Colleges.
For the final episode of the series, I’m reviewing Scripps College’s Tiernan Field House (TFH). The facility is quite comprehensive, offering students both a space to work out and a variety of services that prioritize wellness and community.
Now, before I start speaking about the quality of the facility, I want to talk about the design of the gym, which was certainly the most unique and arguably the best out of the five gyms.
Many 5C students fancy Scripps’ architecture, as it boasts Spanish Revival-style buildings that resemble the missions of the West Coast; TFH was consistent with this look. While Pomona College and Claremont McKenna College have impressively shiny, modern buildings for their gym-goers, TFH left me starstruck.
The building has three floors and is connected to a beach volleyball court, swimming pool and soccer field.
The second floor is where most of the gym equipment is housed. Unlike at the other gyms, where the majority of the equipment is placed in a single room, the TFH’s equipment is divided into three different rooms.
One room contains exclusively cardio machines, another strength-related equipment and the last a mix of both. In the hallways, there are medicine ball racks and yoga mats to borrow.
Another feature of the second floor is the set of balconies attached to the rooms. Students can use the mats placed outside for mobility and stretching exercises, all while looking out at a beautiful view of the swimming pool and the Claremont Colleges.
The equipment at TFH is also quite great. The gym certainly does not lack any important machines, with its best feature arguably being the platforms attached to the squat racks. These platforms allow lifters to drop their weights, which is helpful when they’re trying to lift a new max lift.
One nitpicky downside to the equipment at the TFH is that there is only one set of each uniquely weighted dumbbell. If the gym is ever busy, gym-goers will likely have to wait to use the popular weights.
Looking past the equipment at TFH, the facility also has two multipurpose rooms with mirrors for aerobics, stretching and cardio. One is on the second floor and is similar to the rooms housing the cardio and strength-related equipment. For me, though, the other room — a huge aerobics space located in the basement — is the standout of the two. It’s accompanied by dozens of bikes, perfect for group kickboxing, pilates or meditation sessions; TFH offers these coach-led sessions to students free of cost.
I was also impressed by all of the amenities that were attached to the building.
Next to the gym is Alumnae Field, a natural grass soccer field connected to a beach volleyball court. On the other side of the gym, there’s a swimming pool students can access through the basement. There’s plenty of space for hanging out and relaxing by the pool chairs, especially when students aren’t already spending their time in the wellness room or the kitchen on the first floor of TFH.
Like how I rated Pitzer’s gym, I will consider all of these amenities in my rating of TFH since they are directly attached to the main facility.
Translated into numerical scores, my review is as follows:
Quality of the facility: 8.5/10. The quality of the machines is pretty standard and on par with the rest of the Claremont College gyms. However, I do think I have to give Tiernan a couple of extra points for its fabulous interior, which is consistent with the rest of the campus’s Spanish-style architecture.
Amenities: 9.5/10. The gym is secondary to its surrounding amenities. The pool, beach volleyball court and soccer field attached to the building are impressive. Now, the Pitzer gym had an entire restaurant, which is why I gave Tiernan a lower score, but it was awfully close.
Size: 7.5/10. The space itself was decent, but the size of the gym didn’t wow me. I was, however, impressed by the four different workout rooms as well as the separate aerobics room. Though these were smaller, extended balconies for stretching made me think I would never get tired of the space, even if it wasn’t a three-story state-of-the-art mansion like the Roberts Pavilion.
Non-exercise-related value: 5/10. There isn’t much else for students hoping to do something besides exercise. There is the kitchen — a first for the 5C gyms — and the wellness lounge attached to it, but there’s little space to get any work done.
The Tiernan Field House of Scripps College received an average score of 7.63.
As the famous, campus-renowned ‘Gyms with Jun’ series comes to an end, here’s a comprehensive ranking of all the gyms around the Claremont Colleges.
- Claremont McKenna’s Roberts Pavilion: 9/10
- Pomona College’s Center for Athletics, Recreation, and Wellness: 8.75/10
- Scripps College’s Tiernan Field House: 7.63/10
- Pitzer College’s Gold Student Center: 7.38/10
- Harvey Mudd College’s Linde Activities Center: 5.87/10
Do I think any of these gyms are worth trekking across half of Claremont for? Maybe, maybe not. However, one takeaway from the series should be that regardless of what school you go to or what gym you work out in, the Scripps College gym’s balconies are probably the best place to do your stretches.
Jun Kwon PO ’28 is saddened to conclude the ‘Gyms with Jun’ series but is glad he can now go to sports games. Silently working out and taking notes about gym equipment is not nearly as fun as interviewing coaches after an overtime victory.