Designed by Populous, headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., the design includes seating capacity for 102,500 spectators, a 20,000-seat increase from the current Kyle Field.

“The redevelopment of Kyle Field will result in the finest collegiate football facility in the country and will serve as a benchmark moving forward for future redevelopment projects at colleges across the nation,” said Earl Santee, senior principal at Populous. “This project is entirely focused on preserving the incredible tradition and iconic elements of Kyle Field while defining the future of Aggie football by enhancing a game day experience unlike any other. When complete, Kyle Field will serve as a living monument to the unique culture and the storied history that is Texas A&M.”

A joint venture between Vaughn Construction, headquartered in Houston, and Tulsa, Okla.-headquartered Manhattan Construction Company will lead construction on the redevelopment. Construction is expected to begin in November and complete in August 2015.

Funding for the project will be funded from annual seat licenses, Kyle Field Campaign donations, Texas A&M students and local government agencies. With expanded seating options, the stadium will also undergo a complete reseating. Approximately 120 suites, a private club in a 3,900-seat field box and three different types of loge seating will be added to the stadium.

The much-anticipated project is expected to transform the school’s gameday experience.

“In my short time here in Aggieland, I have witnessed firsthand how Aggies respond to challenges and opportunities. This significant project is a shared vision and shared experience for all of our fans,” said Eric Hyman, director of athletics for the university, in a statement. “Upon completion, we will have immense pride in Kyle Field. It will be unmatched anywhere in the country, with Texas A&M’s history and traditions woven throughout the stadium and its surroundings.”

Other features of the stadium, which will include a brick, glass and limestone façade, include two large canopies on the east and west sidelines to provide shade for fans and amplify noise, the 30,000-square-foot Hall of Champions, and numerous plazas and gathering spaces for fans.

Construction will take place in three phases beginning with the demolition of the first deck of the east side, the reconstruction of the first deck and the construction of the south endzone. Phase II, expected to begin in November 2014, will demolish the entire west side of the stadium, complete endzone construction and reconstruct the west side of the stadium.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board recently gave formal approval to the trailblazing project.

"We appreciate the consideration and support of this groundbreaking project by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board," said John Sharp, Texas A&M university system chancellor. "Their formal approval paves the way for the most ambitious redevelopment ever envisioned."

In late July, the university approved the construction timeline with expectations of completion in time for the 2015 season.

“As we have seen with Texas A&M’s transition into the Southeastern Conference, athletics can play a key role in increasing the visibility of the entire university,” said Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin in a statement. “The Kyle Field project is yet another element of enhancing Texas A&M’s profile.”

To track the construction progress live, click here.
 

The post Massive Kyle Field Redevelopment to Begin at Texas A&M appeared first on School Construction News.

The $250 million stadium, equipped with 5,000-square-foot scoreboard, will seat 45,000 fans and replace the 63-year-old off-campus Floyd Casey Stadium positioned miles from campus. At 860,000 square feet, the stadium will include a pedestrian bridge providing connectivity with campus, nearly 250 portable and permanent concession points and canopy shades will provide shading to 45 to 55 percent of seats throughout the day.

Designed by Kansas City, Mo.-based Populous and constructed by a partnership between Dallas-headquartered Austin Commercial and Flintco, LLC with offices in Austin, Texas, the new stadium will provide a much grander view to the university’s team loyalty.

“The stadium will now become the front door to the university it has prominent visibility will provide year-round connection to the campus,” said Sherri Privitera, principal at Populus. “When fans come to game day they’re really going to be coming and experiencing campus now like they never have before.”

The 93-acre site is scheduled to open for the 2014 football season and will become a spectacle to those driving down I-35. Visitors can arrive easily by car and enjoy the increased parking spaces, by boat or by foot via the pedestrian bridge, Privitera said. Much insight for the design was drawn from the unique qualities of Baylor architecture, Privitera said.

“The inspiration really came from campus,” Privitera said. “We spent significant time on campus and with Baylor officials, drawing from what their goals are as far as the football stadium and the university as well as their connection to the city.”

The firm created a set of eight design principles from the information they gathered on campus, she said, adding that the columns and kind of brick used at the stadium is representative of the campus.

“We designed this stadium for Baylor,” Privitera said. “We would not design the aspects of the stadium for any other location”

The unique shape of the stadium was planned to shade as many football fans as possible given the several angles of the sun and the allotted budget for the canopy. The numerous shaded open concourses, which Privitera said are similar to a baseball stadium’s concourses, also provide additional views to the school.

“You have a connection back to the city, back to the university and to the surrounding site,” Privitera said. “You’ll also be able to stand on the lower or upper concourse and always be connected back to the game.”

The family-oriented design of the stadium will create a fantastic weekend experience with great tailgating opportunities, Privitera said, and its proximity to Waco nightlife, restaurants and businesses will generate a boost in the local economy.

“It will attract nationally and locally more attention to the stadium,” Privitera said.

The Baylor University Board of Regents also approved the $13.6 million track and field stadium project to be built on the far east side of the stadium. Populous will also design the 5,000-seat stadium that will include a 13,500-square-foot indoor practice facility.

"It is a great and humbling day for the Baylor track and field family," said Todd Harbour, head coach of Baylor’s track team, in a statement. "It will be a huge blessing for us to be on campus with all of our other outstanding facilities. When completed, the overall facility, including the indoor workout area, will be one of the nation’s finest track and field complexes.”

Construction on the track and field project is expected to begin this summer with a projected completion date of spring 2015.

The post Baylor Athletics Transforming Facilities appeared first on School Construction News.

The project is partially a response to the university’s Framework Plan, adopted in 2009, which called for improved recreational and athletic facilities on the main campus. The plan also called for a general shift, moving parking facilities to the edges of campus, and replacing it with green space when possible. The new parking structure will help to replace two parking lots near the middle of campus, which are currently being replaced by two acres of green space.

A new 2,500-seat indoor multipurpose facility will be used for hosting major events, like the school’s annual new student convocation, as well as competitive athletic events and team practices. The space will also be usable for club sports and intramural teams. The building will feature new locker rooms, fitness and weight training facilities, office and meeting room space, and sports medicine amenities.

Renovations to the aquatics center and sports pavilion will provide new practice and competition venues for varsity sports, new locker rooms, a new diving well next to the existing swimming pool, and spaces for yoga and various exercise classes.

A 1,200-car parking garage will take the place of an existing surface parking lot near the sports and aquatics center. This structure will also contain fitness studios, weight rooms, and other recreational facilities.

“This new plan will provide greatly enhanced recreational facilities for all of our students, increased parking at the north end of campus and improved key areas for our athletic programs,” said Northwestern University president Morton Schapiro. “This will be a benefit to many members of the Northwestern community.”

Schapiro added that the felt trustees embraced the plans because the new facilities would be designed to be useful for many purposes, creating benefits for the average student, not just varsity athletes competing at the highest level. He also said the timetable for construction would be determined by funding, stressing that this project would be “a number one priority” in terms of fundraising efforts at the university in the immediate future.

The project will return the football program to the main campus, with game day being the only time players travel to the university’s football stadium at Ryan Field. Practices and training sessions are currently held at a field near the stadium, which is approximately one mile away from campus.

Jim Phillips, Northwestern’s director of athletics and recreation, felt the new facilities would aid the recruiting process and bring athletes closer to the rest of the student culture at the university. “The improvements will provide better integration of our student athletes with other students on our main campus, reducing the divide that manifests when there are separate facilities for student athletes, as occurs at many other institutions.”

Northwestern’s football program has risen out of relative anonymity in recent years to attend four bowl games in a seven-year stretch. The team began its first sports marketing campaign in 2010, branding itself as “Chicago’s Big-10Team,” added Under Armour as a sponsor in 2011 and has begun this season with a bang, jumping out to a 3-0 record and becoming one of only 31 teams who remain undefeated at this point in the season.

“Football is the engine that drives this department,” Phillips said. “It’s the emotional engine. It’s the financial engine. We have to invest not only in all our sports, but especially in football. This will allow the football program to be in the heart of campus.”

The post Northwestern University Announces New Athletics Complex appeared first on School Construction News.

The stadium has been under renovations to address earthquake safety concerns and general improvements. The Bears played at the San Francisco Giant’s AT&T Park last season, and practiced on a university rugby field. The team took an hour or so to test out the new turf recently, but the facility won’t be fully open for regular team activities until around the end of August. The construction crews will finish up some concrete work in the meantime. Workers and their families will be invited to attend a celebration at the September 8 home game, where they will get to watch the game and receive recognition for their efforts.

The university explained the project came about primarily because of a need to renovate Memorial Stadium to account for the fact that it sits on top of the Hayward Fault, where two tectonic plates meet, practically ensuring an earthquake sometime in the future. The new safety features include designing the structure so that pieces of it will move individually during an earthquake, rather than being torn apart. Essentially, different pieces of the stadium will move when the plates under them shift. The project actually involved eliminating 8,000 seats, but the university expects the fan experience to improve with more spacious walkways and restroom facilities. The entire field was actually dug four feet lower than previously to improve visibility from the stands.

The project was led by UC Berkeley civil engineering alumni David Friedman, now the senior principal at Forell/Elsesser Engineers of San Francisco. The firm has been working on various retrofits of the stadium since 1998 and also did rehab work on the Berkeley Civic Center and San Francisco’s City Hall and Asian Art Museum. Design work was handled by a joint team of STUDIOS Architecture and HNTB. Construction was led by locally-based Webcor Builders.

One of the entirely new features at Memorial Stadium will be the artificial turf, which actually has an irrigation system to keep the field clean and cool. The bottom layer consists of crushed stone covered by a layer of rubber pellets and pea gravel, which is mixed with synthetic materials to provide a cushioning effect. The 2.25-inch thick artificial turf is then placed over the top. Sand and rubber are then poured on top. These materials cause the fibers in the turf to stand up like grass and also provide additional padding.

The project received a lot of publicity in the spring, when the Wall Street Journal reported the renovations would cost $321 million, outpacing the university’s planned funding of around $270 million from selling stadium seats. In fact, the school had only collected $31 million in the first three years of advertising the seats. The university expects private endowments and seat-naming rights will provide much of the missing funding. Premium club seats will go for $40,000 or more. UC Berkeley public affairs officer Dan Mogulof explained the university had over $144 million in commitments for seats and that many of them are agreements to pay over time, which is why the university has so little of the money in hand at the moment. Mogulof added that the $144 million in future commitments would cover the debt obligations for the stadium for 26 years. Cal Berkeley officials have repeatedly assured students the bill won’t fall on their backs, as University of California students have already seen massive growth in tuition rates over the last few years as state funding has dried up amid the financial downturn, and the Golden State’s own unique budget saga.

The athletic department hired a professional sales staff in August in an effort to spur sales at the endowment level. Students formerly handled the sales function for the athletic department and worked part-time receiving calls from potential buyers. The new team will aggressively pursue prospective buyers by calling them directly.

Things are really coming together as the season approaches, with 95 percent of the 63,000 seats already bolted into position. The eight-story press box is also very near to completion. Work on the new Cal Hall of Fame will continue until next season.

Cal will be relying on senior quarterback Zach Maynard and his half-brother and number one receiver Keenan Allen to make big plays all over the new turf this year. Hopes are running high that a return to their home field can help the Bears eclipse their 7-6 record from 2011.

The post Cal Players Enjoying New Stadium appeared first on School Construction News.

The university broke ground on the $75 million project in late April, with construction continuing through the 2012 season, and completion slated for just before the first game of the 2013 season. GE Johnson out of Colorado Springs and Mortenson Construction from Minnesota are the construction managers for the project, with design led by Los Angeles firm AECOM, with assistance from Heery Design.

“The idea is that we want to enhance the overall fan experience for everybody involved,” assistant university architect and project manager David McMullen explained. “There will be improved facilities from everything from concessions to suites — we’ll have several levels of suites available to the general public. There will also be a Hall of Fame where we can have exhibits of various players and the history of K-State football.”

Some of the main attractions will be the new “tailgate terrace” and a new set of clubs and outdoor suites. Season ticket holders in suites and clubs will get all-inclusive food and beverage packages. The Hall of Fame will also be included in the new building.

The expansion will also include some basic convenience upgrades, including more concessions and restroom options, a new ticket office, a dining hall for student athletes, and additional K-State fan/student shops.

The new building will represent the largest single-structure project ever undertaken at the campus. The current press box will remain in use until the end of the 2012 season.

“The idea for the fan experience this fall is going to be as much interest in what is going on as it is maybe what it’s going to be when its done,” McMullen explained, before adding that fans would be safely directed around the construction during games in 2012. “The stadium will stand as an icon to Kansas State University for 100 years or more,” he predicted.

A major milestone was reached in mid-August, when a building on the south end of the stadium was demolished. The structure previously supplied fan retail, first aid and restroom functions. Restroom facilities at neighboring Bramlage Coliseum, home of the K-State basketball teams, will be left open during games this season, to make up for the loss of bathrooms until the new facilities are completed, along with temporary bathrooms that will be added inside the stadium. A large tent will replace the fan-ware retail function in the short-term.

K-State’s home opener for the 2012 season, September 1 against Missouri State, is already sold out. The Wildcats hope to continue their recent success under head football coach Bill Snyder, who led the team to a 10-2 record, securing a second place finish in the Big 12 Conference last year. Excitement continues to mount as the football team was ranked in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 this August, making it the first time the Wildcats have secured that honor since 2004.

The post Kansas State Stadium Getting Facelift appeared first on School Construction News.