Gary Kempf led a small group of reporters Tuesday on a tour of Kansas University’s nearly complete Anderson Family Strength and Conditioning Center.

Along the way, KU’s assistant athletic director pointed out items still on the to-do list, such as installing mirrors in the weight room.

In the lobby, Kempf pointed to a wall where a 91/2-foot-by-101/2-foot Jayhawk sign will hang.

“You’ve got to have a big Jayhawk in a big weight room,” he said.

And it is big.

The $8 million, 42,000-square-foot facility on the northwest corner of Anschutz Pavilion dwarfs the 5,000-square-foot Shaffer-Holland Strength Center it will replace.

Shaffer-Holland was considered big when it opened in 1984, and Kansas only has added about 50 student-athletes since then. But a higher percentage of KU’s 500 or so athletes now lift weights, and after-practice logjams in the weight room during the late afternoon and early evening are common.

“There’s enough equipment and enough different areas that you can work in that you won’t see this being a crowded weight room the way our other one was,” Kempf said.

The new facility, designed by HOK Sport+Venue+Event architects in Kansas City, Mo., and built by Turner Construction, is scheduled to open when KU resumes classes following spring break March 24.

KU’s football players will spend the rest of their offseason in a new weight room with a new strength and conditioning coach. Chris Dawson, who worked the past two seasons as the head strength and conditioning coach at the University of Minnesota, was in his 10th day on the job during Tuesday’s tour.

Dawson said Anderson Center was a deciding factor in his move to Kansas

“There was a lot of different variables, but that was definitely one of them,” he said. “Most people in their careers never have an opportunity to move into a new facility like this.”

That’s because there aren’t many facilities like this one.

KU football coach Mark Mangino has called it “one of a kind in college athletics” and hopes the building will help his program in recruiting as well as conditioning.

The ANderson Family Strength and COnditioning center on the Kansas University campus boasts 42,000 square feet and will house 60,000 worth of exercise and weightlifting equipment. The center is scheduled to open when KU resumes classes following spring break March 24.

Algen Williams is certain the new facility can do both. The former Jayhawk wide receiver and 2001 KU graduate is HOK’s site representative.

“In terms of pure square footage, this is one of the largest in the country,” Williams said.

As any weightlifter will tell you, size matters. But Anderson Center has unique features other than its massive proportions.

While the building has an elevator and stairs on its north end, KU athletes likely will get more use out of a plyometric area on the south end. There are three ways to get from one floor to the other — stairs, stadium-grade stairs and a 28-degree ramp.

“That will definitely give you a workout,” Williams said. “I don’t know of any other weight facility in the nation at any school that has something like that indoors, which is a huge advantage for obvious reasons.”

Like rain, snow and a typical Kansas winter.

Algen Williams, site representative for HOK Sport Event Architects of Kansas City, Mo., leads members of the media on a tour of the new Anderson Family Strength and Conditioning Center. Williams is leading the tour up a ramp that is part of the facility's plyometric element.

In two weeks, workers will install synthetic turf in the 7,500-square-foot cardiovascular workout area on the second floor and a rubber athletic floor in the 15,000-square-foot weight room on the first floor.

After that, equipment from Shaffer-Holland and about $560,000 worth of new equipment will be moved in during the March 17-23 spring break.

“If you can’t get strong in here, you can’t get strong period,” said Kempf, who coached swimming at Kansas for 24 years.

The new facility also has better ventilation and more natural light than the old weight room. It also has offices for strength coaches and locker rooms on the first floor and two classrooms and two large conference rooms on the second floor.

“A lot of times all our meeting rooms are scheduled,” Kempf said. “We don’t have any place to go, so this has been a great addition.”

Kempf was pleased with the progress of the project and the fact that it’s within its $8 million budget. Dawson, meanwhile, was clearly giddy as he left the tour to meet football players for an afternoon workout in Anschutz.

“I’m awfully excited about the new facility,” he said. “I’m excited to be here. I’m having a good time working with the kids. I can’t wait for the facility to open up.”

The wait is almost over.