IRVINE : Working Off Stress Just Part of the Job

City recreation worker John Parrett doesn’t have to go far when he feels like pumping iron and burning calories.

Inside Irvine’s $38-million state-of-the-art City Hall, a floor below the city manager’s office and one flight above the Planning Department, is the mirror-walled Wellness Center.

With its rows of weights, Lifecycles, Stairmasters and other sweat-inducers, this exclusive preserve for city employees helps them work off job stress and keep fit. “I do it to stay in shape,” Parrett said as he prepared to lift some weights. “It’s nice to have a place where you can stay healthy.”

The facility has been popular with employees since the new City Hall opened in 1989.

City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. included the Wellness Center in the City Hall design after touring civic centers across the country. One of the cities he visited was Carmel, where then-mayor Clint Eastwood had opened a similar fitness center for the city staff.

Irvine’s Wellness Center can be used only by City Hall employees, and then only after they take a fitness test and discuss their exercise goals with the gym’s trainer before their first workout.

The center includes locker rooms and a bulletin board filled with fitness and nutrition tips. Among the handouts available are one on stress reduction techniques and another that reviews the calorie and fat content of food from McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr. and other eateries. Tips on walking for exercise are also featured, as are sign-up sheets for a baseball team.

“It works--absolutely, without a doubt,” said one employee on a Stairmaster. “It reduces stress.”

The Wellness Center is on the second floor of City Hall, whose tall white clock tower has become an Irvine landmark.

The Civic Center, in Westpark Village, is at the corner of Alton Parkway and Harvard Avenue.