As a new semester started yesterday, students at Duquesne University not only cracked open new books and adjusted to new class schedules. They got to break in a new building.

Duquesne officially opened its $35 million Power Center yesterday morning, enlivening a once run-down section of Forbes Avenue and providing students, faculty members and staffers with a state-of-the-art recreation center, Barnes & Noble bookstore, and skywalk, some 81 feet above ground, to the main campus.

"This is sweet," gushed Sabrina Haines, a 20-year-old junior from Harrisburg, as she checked out a fourth-level basketball court, one of two in Power Center, named after the Rev. William Patrick Power, Duquesne's first president.

The bookstore features a cafe and two levels, with one reserved for textbooks and the other for popular fare. It's larger than the one operated by Barnes & Noble for Point Park University on Wood Street but smaller than the one that closed at the end of 2006 on Smithfield Street.

Still, John Kachur, the manager, likes to refer to the store as "Downtown's neighborhood bookstore."

For students, Power Center is light years ahead of the cramped and less than ideal quarters in the A. J. Palumbo Center.

Besides the two full-sized basketball courts, the new building features a three-lane indoor track, weight equipment, treadmills, stationary bikes, racquetball courts, lounges, locker rooms, big-screen plasma TVs, and classroom and aerobics space.

Duquesne President Charles Dougherty said the university undertook the project, part of a long-range master plan, to stay competitive in recruiting students. He said they have come to expect such state-of-the-art amenities.

In addition to the bookstore, two more retail outlets will soon be opening at street level. One will be a Red Ring restaurant and other a Jamba Juice bar.

On the top level of Power Center, which rises the equivalent of eight floors, is 7,500 square feet of conference and ballroom space with spectacular but seldom seen views of the Downtown skyline.

Power Center, coupled with new lighting, spruces up a section of Forbes Avenue in Uptown that only a few years ago was populated by deteriorated row houses, warehouses and parking lots.

Yesterday, students said they liked what they saw as they toured the center during breaks.

"I think it's awesome," said Nick Cicci, 21, a senior who had joined a gym on the South Side because he didn't like the recreation space in the Palumbo Center. He said that will change now.

"This makes it feel like a real college atmosphere," he said.

Marc Willner, 20, a sophomore pharmacy major, said the Palumbo Center featured "20-year-old equipment that was broke. It was pretty gross." He said he was "pretty impressed" with Power Center.

"You definitely can show this off," he said.