Arrillaga Outdoor Education and Recreation Center

Looks ok but when you look closer, they goofed on some things:
shower area is slippery tile,
many lockers in the men’s side, at least, are broken,
toilets flush automatically whether needed or not
showers are not auto off, so some people walk away leaving shower running.
And the new irrigated lawns under the old oaks outside are killing the oak trees (root fungus).

Love this gym! They have an olympic size pool, rock climbing, an abundant number of classes to take, oodles of equipment, and very helpful staff.
Only drawback is that it does get busy around 5:00pm.

Great pool! Well-​equipped gym! Mini climbing gym (but a climbing gym and free rentals too!)
The only dislike is that they have kind of a gross wet floor in the locker rooms, but they have day use lockers! And I suppose that’s just a testament to the number of people who like to use the pool.
They’re closing the parking lot across the way, so I’m not sure what kind of impact that will have on my visits in the future, but I do love this gym!

The rock wall here is amazing– on par with other, larger gyms. It’s also nice that they have hear rental available, though the hours are limited. I also like the day use lockers they have available– that actually lock!

My jaw dropped the first time I entered the locker room at this sparkling new facility — and stayed that way to the knowing amusement of others who had had a similar reaction themselves. How utterly sweet!
I am so thrilled that I can use a locker for the day, shower in a stall (with a curtain!) after my swim/​workout and go home relaxed and happy.

Having used the gym at Cal, UCSF, two JCCs, and two other universities, I can say that this is a great gym for a workout — BUT it is plagued by some striking limitations, which are probably not due to lack of money but lack of thought:
1) Day use lockers are huge but they have no hooks to hang clothes. It’s a square metal box where your cloths flop down. Really.
2) No shelves or any place to store anything in the shower stalls (at least men’s). So if you have swimming goggles, a wash rag, your own shampoo, a razor — well you have to leave it on the ground (and risk stepping on your razor), or risk breaking it as your attempt to balance it on the soap dispenser fails.
3) Ventilation in the main workout room is grossly inadequate. Clearly the HVAC guys had no experience in airflow in places where 100 are working out at once. Because of the lack of ventilation, there is very high humidity. People are dripping with sweat. Since the gym does not provide sweat towels (and since nobody brings them apparently), the floor and equipment is dripping with sweat. Stanford gym staff are mopping the floor frequently. The money and effort on mopping could be saved with better dehumidification and ventilation. It’s just a matter of time until somebody slips and falls on the floor.
4) No sweat or shower towels. I get it – this is a community gym and the cost of laundry, lost towels, etc isn’t worth it. On the other hand, people are not bringing them and the high humidity is going to lead to mold pretty quickly. Why not sell «towel cards» so that those who do want to pay for convenience can subsidize the costs of this?
5) You need small rags to wipe gym equipment. Paper towels are not sufficient. Over time, the oils and sweat that is not wiped will wear down the rubber equipment — not to mention all the bacteria that is being transferred from one person to another from poorly wiped equipment.
I am not expecting a sports club feel. These are basic things that improve the comfort for all at nominal cost (locker hooks, shower shelves) and may be cost saving (ventilation) in the long run. If the university, which has the world’s biggest university endowment, can afford 15 foot ceilings and floor-​to-​ceiling fancy tile in the locker room, then these basic necessities should have been planned for.
Again, it’s great building with great equipment, but they skimped on some important details.

This is the new gym that recently opened (November 2013) at Stanford university. It is located on the west side of campus, near the golf course and driving range.
The gym is almost identical in physical design as the original arillaga gym. The main floor when you walk in has the rock climbing center and 3 full indoor basketball courts.
If you go downstairs there is the weight and cardio room. It is full of the most up to date equipment! There are 5 stations for power lifting, and a variety of machines to do circuit workouts. The free weights go from 2−100lbs, and there are at least 2 dozen cardio machines (treadmill, bicycle, elliptical, etc).
It can get pretty crowded during the peak hours (before dinner, morning before 9) so make sure you plan your workout accordingly.
There is also a great Olympic sized pool (50×25) located on the bottom floor of the gym as well.

Just wanted to add an update for the Avery Recreational Pool since there’s not a separate Unilocal entry for it. Great pool with fantastic hours for west side residents.
The hours (open til 9pm) are really good — you can go after work at 5 and it’s still empty. There are private showers, and everything is a little bit nicer than the Avery Aquatic Center pool on the east side of campus (nicer tiling, larger changing space, warmer water).
The lanes are never across the whole length of the pool (i.e., 50m) and are always set up to have as many lanes as possible (25 yards long). This works well as I’ve gone at all times of the day and only had to share a lane a handful of times. Since it’s in the shadow of the building it can get a bit cold in the afternoon, but other than that no complaints.
Note about my early review since I got some slack for it: I didn’t mean that the gym was not good for heavy weight lifting, just that compared to using machines or cardio it wasn’t the best. Specifically, I don’t like doing deadlifts here because of the way the weights roll. Otherwise, I liked the gym a lot (except for the whole water fountains thing)!

Excellent gym. The lockers that are open to anyone to use are an absolute godsend. The rock climbing arena looks fantastic, and the view for the basketball courts is awesome. All things considered, my favorite thing about it is that it’s a 2 minute walk from lab.

Awesome space. Great weight-​room, incredible outdoor pool, strong climbing wall, & much more!

I ran on a treadmill for the first time in my life… It was fun, but not as fun as running outside. Gym is artificial.
Running outside is much more fun.
Biking outside with a real bike is much more fun.
Only pool is good for me.

Brand new facilities with lockable lockers in the gym, a real locker room to change in, tons of equipment in Cardinal red, a separate spinning room, and even a punching bag in the stretching area. The treadmills and ellipticals now have their own individual televisions built into them, which is a really welcome change from the ACSR.
Only complaints: lack of water fountains inside the gym, and lack of stretching mats. Get on it, Stanford!

Nice facility. Zero complaints from me. Top of the line in equipment and it has showers and lockers.