Payne Whitney Gymnasium

Payne Whitney Gymnasium

Location	70 Tower Pkwy New Haven, CT 06511
Coordinates	41°18′49″N 72°55′50″W / 41.31361°N 72.93056°W / 41.31361; -72.93056
Owner	Yale University
Operator	Yale University
Capacity	2,532 (Lee Amphitheater) 2,178 (Kiphuth Exhibition Pool)
Construction
Opened	1932
Architect	John Russell Pope
Tenants
Yale Bulldogs (basketball, fencing, gymnastics, squash, swimming, & volleyball)

The Payne Whitney Gymnasium is the gymnasium of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. One of the largest athletic facilities ever built,^[1] its twelve acres of interior space include a nine-story tower containing a third-floor swimming pool, fencing facilities, and a polo practice room. The building houses the facilities of many varsity teams at Yale, including basketball, fencing, gymnastics, squash, swimming, and volleyball. It is the second-largest gym in the world by cubic feet.

The building was donated to Yale by John Hay Whitney, of the Yale class of 1926, in honor of his father, Payne Whitney. Because it was designed in the Gothic Revival style that prevailed at Yale between 1920 and 1945, it is commonly known as "the cathedral of sweat".^[2] For the design of Payne Whitney Gymnasium, architect John Russell Pope was awarded the Silver Medal at the 1932 Olympic Games Art Competition.

The stuffed original Handsome Dan, the bulldog mascot of Yale and the first college mascot in the United States, resides in a glass cabinet near the entrance to the building.