By Abigail Funk
Abigail Funk is an Assistant Editor at Athletic Management magazine. She can be reached at: afunk@MomentumMedia.com.
Athletic Management, 18.6, October/November 2006, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/am/am1806/puzzlepieces.htm
Innovation comes in many forms. And often it involves looking at facilities from a new perspective, the proverbial “thinking outside the box.”
This can mean putting a wide array of disparate services under one roof or finding a way to squeeze athletic facilities into a plot of land previously deemed unsuitable. It can mean finding a way to co-exist with a fragile environment or partnering with a professional team for both parties to benefit.
In this issue, we take a look at five facilities of innovation, each born from a new approach to a challenge. While the physical facilities themselves vary in size and purpose, they all reveal creative thinking and new ideas.
FOR MIND & BODY
In May, the University of Cincinnati opened doors to the $53 million Richard E. Linder Athletic Center, housing what retired Athletic Director Bob Goin refers to as amenities for the entire student-athlete—both mind and body. These amenities range from practical office and work space for those who support the athletes every day to more opulent areas celebrating Cincinnati’s spirit and history.
The eight-story, 235,000 square-foot structure is the centerpiece of the college’s Richard E. Linder Varsity Village, which opened in 2003 with the new UC Baseball Stadium and Gettler Stadium, home of the soccer and outdoor track teams. Cincinnati has also renovated Nippert Stadium and Fifth Third Arena, the football and basketball facilities, as part of the Village upgrade.
Visitors to the Linder Center are greeted by a main entryway that opens into the George and Helen Smith Athletics Museum, which celebrates the athletic and academic achievements of Cincinnati graduates. Designed by alumna Eva Maddox, the museum is a hall of fame documenting the university’s sports history through audio and visual displays. Murals cover every wall and there is a floating glass trophy case as well as a 20-foot-tall video screen.
“A lot of people only think of Oscar Robinson and the basketball program when they think of the University of Cincinnati, but the athletic program has accomplished so much more,” says Kim Starr, Project Manager at Paris- and New York City-based Bernard Tschumi Architects, the signature architect for the Center. “It was such a pleasure to go back to the campus after the building opened and observe teenage boys looking at the soccer display and little girls excited about the women’s basketball and volleyball displays.”
For the student-athlete’s body, a 12,000 square-foot practice gym, a strength and conditioning facility twice its previous size, state-of-the-art locker rooms, a meeting room, and UC’s 7,500 square-foot sports medicine center are located on the three below-ground levels. “When you look at this building’s medical facilities, it’s really one-stop shopping,” says current Athletic Director Mike Thomas. “We have our sports medicine people and the university’s health services both in one spot. An MRI facility and hydrotherapy room help fill out our extensive athletic training facilities. We can provide a lot of care that previously would have required students and student-athletes to go off campus to get.”
For the student-athlete’s mind, there is an entire floor that includes computer labs, tutoring rooms, study halls, and a 335-seat auditorium. And Cincinnati didn’t forget about coaches and athletic department personnel—two floors of the Center house coaches’ offices, and a faculty dining club is available for de-stressing during lunch breaks. “What’s great about the Linder Center is that there is no current comparison on any other college campus,” Starr says. “UC has become the benchmark.”
Incorporating so many entities was a challenge Tschumi Architects eagerly accepted. “We consider ourselves creative problem solvers, so if somebody comes to us with a crazy vision of all these disparate spaces that might normally be in different buildings, we’re going to find a way to make it work,” Starr says. “Bob Goin always talked about the Center in glorious terms, like we were creating a sports cathedral. And when he described his vision to us, having the mental and physical tools for student-athlete growth housed in one complex made perfect sense.”
Associate Athletic Director Paul Klaczak has watched the rise of the Linder Center since day one of the design process. Now that it’s complete, he’s working to get the Center certified by the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). The guidelines, adopted by the USGBC six years ago, recognize buildings that use a “green” approach in their construction.
To help reduce the building’s environmental impact, general contractor Turner Construction included amenities like low-flow toilets and sinks, low-energy lighting fixtures, and high-performance heating and cooling systems. “We even thought ahead by adding outlets for hydroelectric cars,” Klaczak says. “And we collect all of the used water in a retention basin and use it to water the plants. These steps didn’t save us any money in building the structure, but they will show up in our long-term operational costs.”
Despite its $53-million dollar price tag, which is part of an overall athletic facilities upgrade project costing upwards of $80 million, the Center is already starting to pay off for the university. “It’s been an unbelievable magnet for our community already,” Thomas says. “Prospective student-athletes still undecided about where they want to go to school are walking through this facility, and now they’re going to choose Cincinnati. The Center puts us ahead of the curve, and I would challenge anybody to find a college facility as special as this one.”
RETHINKING BARRIERS
More than 30 years ago, East Kentwood (Mich.) High School moved to its current home, but as of two years ago was still using the athletic fields at its old building, now a middle school. That's because the 25-acre parcel of open land next door to the high school contained large detention basins, underground utilities, overhead high voltage wires, and a sloping terrain.
“Any time we wanted to practice, the teams had to take a bus to our athletic facility,” says Athletic Director Blaine Brumels. “We ran a bus for track, football, and band practices. The football team would dress at school and get bussed to all their home games.”
In 2003, however, the town approved an $85.5 million bond that included funding for a long-awaited athletic complex to house football, track and field, soccer, marching band, as well as physical education classes at East Kentwood. GMB Architecture and Engineering in Holland, Mich., reassessed the 25-acre area next to the school and determined that an athletic complex was feasible. By razing major-event areas, stepping the site along its natural grade line, and putting in a drainage system, GMB architects were able to overcome existing barriers.
Falcon Stadium, which opened in August 2004, boasts an artificial turf football field of all-rubber granule infill, a nine-lane “sandwich” polyurethane track, seating for 7,500, and a concourse for family-friendly tailgating. There are also five stand-alone structures—a press box, two ticket booths, and two concession buildings that also house restrooms. Last year, the Detroit News named the $7 million facility the number one high school stadium in the state.
Brumels says the building has made a big difference for East Kentwood’s athletic teams, and for the community as well. “We have almost twice as many seats as the old complex, twice as many restrooms, and a nine-lane track instead of six,” he says. “We weren’t able to host big track events at the old stadium, but last spring we held a state track meet and a Relay for Life here.”
A WIN-WIN SITUATION
For Christmas 2004, a group of businessmen in Worcester, Mass., bought themselves a big present—a new professional baseball team. Unfortunately, they had no place to put their acquisition, so with little time left before the start of the 2005 season, the Worcester Tornadoes were a team without a home.
The group approached Geller Sport, a landscape architecture firm in Boston, who took on the project of finding and renovating a field for the Tornadoes. Patrick Maguire, President of Geller, says one venue immediately came to mind. Fitton Field at the College of the Holy Cross had a great grass playing surface and a convenient location. But its seating and amenities fell far short of professional levels.
Located just off the main expressway in Worcester, there was easy access for fans, and plenty of parking at Holy Cross’ adjacently located football stadium. With this in mind, the city of Worcester approached Holy Cross Athletic Director Richard Regan with a proposal to share the facility. The Tornadoes offered to completely renovate the field in exchange for use of the venue during their summer season. For Regan, the decision was a no-brainer. Holy Cross would have a professional-level baseball facility.
After getting the go-ahead from Holy Cross, the challenge for Geller Sport was to get the facility ready in time for the team’s inaugural season. “It was almost a build-as-we-designed process,” Maguire says. “We were actually constructing the stadium as they were still hammering out the details of sharing the field. What is normally a two-year process to obtain permits, design, and build, was done in about four months.”
Geller Sport added a state-of-the-art lighting system to allow night games, replaced the old bleachers that sat 250 people with grandstand seating for 3,000, put in restrooms and concession areas, added bullpens, and replaced the dugouts and press box in a $6 million project. “The only thing that wasn’t touched was the actual baseball diamond,” Regan says. “And throughout the process, all we had to do at Holy Cross was approve the design.”
The Tornadoes held their first game at the newly renovated Fitton Field on June 6, 2005, and after two seasons, the Tornadoes and Holy Cross are getting along famously. “Keeping open lines of communication, understanding the college’s needs, and staying on top of our scheduling has helped everything go very smoothly,” says Jorg Bassiacos, Assistant General Manager of Operations for the Tornadoes. “We’ve had the college’s support the whole time and it’s been great.
“One of the best crowds we had last year was when the football players came back to campus at the end of August for their preseason workouts,” Bassiacos continues. “They filled the stands and made for a really good, boisterous crowd.”
Scheduling has been Regan’s only real challenge in making the relationship work. “Their season starts right around Memorial Day weekend, when we hold graduation,” he says, “and occasionally they’ll come in early for practice or a tryout, but we've been able to work it out. From Memorial Day weekend until Labor Day, the Tornadoes basically have control of the facility.”
Fitton Field has even ventured out of the baseball realm, hosting a couple of concerts this summer, including Hootie and the Blowfish. “Moving forward with Holy Cross has been no issue at all," Bassiacos says. "We support each other and will continue to help each other out.”
ROCKY MOUNTAIN FANS
Colorado State University’s Hughes Stadium has always stood out as one of the most naturally beautiful places to watch college football. But it aged over time and the demand for more seats and better amenities rose. Now, the completion of a two-year expansion project has put Hughes Stadium back on the map.
The largest part of the project is a new standalone structure on the backside of the stadium, housing club suites and support staff offices. The entire structure is attached to the existing stadium via a pin connection, which means the stadium only laterally supports the add-on, although it looks like an attached part of the original stadium. Twelve large suites were added, equaling a 2,200-person capacity expansion. The school’s club level also grew to accommodate more than 100 more fans.
Before construction began, Kansas-city based HOK Sport architects and engineers tested the 35 year-old stadium to see how much weight it would have been able to hold. The answer was not much more, so the standalone addition was the next logical choice. “In a sense, collegiate sport projects are the ultimate challenge,” says Ben Stindt, Associate Principal at HOK Sport. “College football fans identify with their team’s home, and there are sacred elements we didn’t want to disturb, so adding on looked like the best option.”
Not all aspects of the stadium overhaul had to be standalone structures, though—new end zone seating and press box renovations were done within the existing structure. In looking at adding end zone seating, Associate Athletic Director for Facilities Doug Max and other school administrators sat down with their local architect, Aller Lingle Architects, Turner Construction, and HOK Sport to do a seating analysis. “Hughes Stadium was built as a bowl in the middle of scenic Colorado,” Max says. “Anywhere you sit has unobstructed views of the field and if you look up, you can see a perfect view of the Rocky Mountains or the Colorado skyline. We didn’t want to lose those views, nor the oval-shaped design of the stadium, so the aesthetic benefits it’s famous for are still there.”
HOK used a modular design in all of the press box renovations and suite additions so that adding on will be easier in the future. “One of the neatest parts about the design of the new press box and suites is that it was built in such a way that it will be extremely easy to come back in and add more later if we want to,” Max says.
“It used to be very simple to build a stadium and a parking lot,” Stindt says. “Architects weren’t even really needed. Now, the college football fan base has changed and certain amenities are expected. And there has to be room for flexibility.”
The project also included a state-of-the-art sound system, new scoreboards, a video screen, and a synthetic turf practice field. The final piece of the renovation was the artificial turf field installed this past summer, making the stadium officially “Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium.”
The turf cost was $1.3 million, bringing total renovation costs to $16.5 million. With the project complete, the stadium opened at the end of August in time for the Rams first home game. “Although it took years to complete, it was great to see the project come together from beginning to end,” Max says. “And because the expansion and renovation was funded by private donations, the university has no debt to worry about.”
AWARDING DESIGN
Weymouth (Mass.) High School sits atop a wooded hill and the main driveway snakes through grass playing fields and around the brand new track and football facilities. The two year-old campus of this public school could easily be confused for a small New England college.
The scenic location, however, provided some extra challenges for the campus designers and builders. The project required about $3 million worth of ledge removal and one-third of the site is made up of designated wetland areas and thus off-limits. But rather than treat the wetland areas as a hindrance, Weymouth and its landscape architects from Larson Associates in Arlington, Mass., worked to make the football and track facility an environmentally friendly neighbor.
“The latex-based track has a base mat made of recycled rubber,” says David Warner, Principal at Larson Associates. “And the football field infill is also recycled rubber. Between the track and the field, the amount of recycled rubber equals approximately 40,000 car tires. Plus, there is no fertilizer or pesticide use involved. The synthetic turf is essentially an inert material, which is important because it’s located within 100 feet of a large wetland area.”
Synthetic turf fields have evolved substantially since they were first introduced in the ’60s as carpets placed over concrete. Weymouth’s surface of taller grass-like fibers is laid over gravel, then sand and rubber granules are put down so it feels more like a natural grass field. “The old type of synthetic turf was great for a sport like field hockey, but expensive because of the paving involved,” Warner says. “This infill system is much less expensive to install and a lot more facilities are going this route because of the price. It’s also almost maintenance-free and water drains out very quickly through the gravel.”
Athletic Director Bob Donovan saw the $2.5 million complex, which won the 2005 Outstanding Track/Fields Facility Award presented by the American Sports Builders Association, rise with the rest of the high school buildings. He is happy to see the athletic facilities at Weymouth on a similar footing with the advanced academic facilities, which include a planetarium and wings dedicated to each school subject.
“I’m also glad that the rest of the community, not just the students and staff, can appreciate it,” says Donovan. “I get phone calls all the time to find out when it’s open to the public, and the track is never empty.”