The Mother of all football stadium "renovations"

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 2:33 pm

I know this should probably be placed in the “other schools” thread, but since we are doing a football stadium addition, I thought some of you might be interested in seeing the mother of all football renovations.

A friend of mine is a Stanford grad and he was telling me of the current renovation they are doing in Palo Alto to the football stadium. In short, they have completely removed the old Stanford bowl stadium and are building a more rectangular stadium with better seating angles and amenities, etc…… in time for next season! I looked at the webcam they have there and couldn't believe how the stadium that was there just a couple weeks ago for the Notre Dame/Stanford game, is gone! He said they have construction crews working around the clock to get the project finished for next season. Wow. I was at Virginia when they did a major renovation on the football stadium there and it took two years and they did it in stages while still keeping most of the original structure. To think at Stanford they are basically building a new stadium on the same site as the old one in one year is very impressive.

Here’s the link for the project, go to the webcams link and there are three different angles to look at.

http://www.stanfordstadium.com/

jacojdm · Post by **jacojdm** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 2:41 pm

wow. that really is something.
there are two huge advantages that stanford has over many other universities in terms of this project:
1) large, no, make that very large, endowment, in part because of whichever hewlett or packard it was that gave something in the order of $1 Billion plus to the U.
2) weather. it makes it easier to do the work 24/7 when there's no snow or cold with which to contend.

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 2:47 pm

jacojdm wrote:wow. that really is something.
there are two huge advantages that stanford has over many other universities in terms of this project:
1) large, no, make that very large, endowment, in part because of whichever hewlett or packard it was that gave something in the order of $1 Billion plus to the U.
2) weather. it makes it easier to do the work 24/7 when there's no snow or cold with which to contend.

No doubt, but it's still an impressive project.

cbjhack · Post by **cbjhack** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:05 pm

Another thing that helps is that the stadium sits in a hole. They won't require much concrete work. In many respects it is like the U of M stadium. Very little is above ground.

At the same time, Stanford didn't have much choice. I toured it 5 years ago and it was, to say the least, a dump. My brother toured it this summer and it was even worse. The Doyt on a bad day is much better then Stanford. OK, I would take a "bad day" at Stanford over a bad day at BG anytime. Anyway, they also don't have much land in or around Palo Alto to build a new stadium. You may recall several years ago, they needed to build a new Residence Hall and had to take part of the golf course. The same golf course that produced Tiger Woods and Tom Watson. I believe they were able to avert a crisis by re-routing the hole that was to be effected, but due to lack of space, had to to do it anyway.

At least with BG, we are fortunate to have plenty of space on or near campus to build new facilities. Of course, the one mistake was building East Hall where they did, especially after promising to tear down South Hall. As most of us know, South Hall is still standing, and East Hall serves no real purpose other than blocking the view and path from Rogers/Sig Ep House/Phi Tau House to Anderson.

Shakeatailfeather04 · Post by **Shakeatailfeather04** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 6:25 pm

cbjhack wrote: .. East Hall serves no real purpose other than blocking the view and path from Rogers/Sig Ep House/Phi Tau House to Anderson.

I guess you're not a big fan of the entire English dept?

JohnnySwoop '85 · Post by **JohnnySwoop '85** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 6:48 pm

Ummm..let's just say that you couldn't see too well out of the Phi Tau house before that abomination of a buidling was shoe horned into the campus.

It wasn't always a dry campus....
What do you mean it was illegal back then...

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 9:50 pm

I hate the way East Hall looks and where they put it. The buidling looks like a jail, and they cleared out one of the nicer parts of campus and just plopped it down. Next, they'll build a new building and stick it in the quad right in front of University Hall....God I hope not. I wish they would have put "East" Hall, say, further East on campus....like the wide open field in between the Slide Projector and dorm that has sat empty for years.

It's the Journey... · Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:20 pm

If you look at the master plan East Hall makes perfect sence. Why put a building between Saddlemire and Kreischer when that is where the new theatre building is going? An english building between two arts building makes a lot less sence than three arts buildings close together.

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:48 pm

It's the Journey... wrote:If you look at the master plan East Hall makes perfect sence. Why put a building between Saddlemire and Kreischer when that is where the new theatre building is going? An english building between two arts building makes a lot less sence than three arts buildings close together.

I've never seen the master plan, so if another building is going out in that field, then I guess that's why they built a building that looks like a jail and stuck it where they did.

Bleeding Orange · Post by **Bleeding Orange** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:50 pm

Huh. I've always kind of liked East Hall. I always thought it fit pretty nicely into that space and helped to create a "quad-like" atmosphere between Ed. and Jerome. I never saw campus without it, but oh well.

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:35 am

Bleeding Orange wrote:Huh. I've always kind of liked East Hall. I always thought it fit pretty nicely into that space and helped to create a "quad-like" atmosphere between Ed. and Jerome. I never saw campus without it, but oh well.

I was in schools when they started clearing the trees out and started digging up the land for the start of construction for East Hall. The strange thing was, no one knew what was going on. All of a sudden one day, a crew put fencing all around the area and later a crew with chainsaws started cutting down trees. A lot of students were upset and didn't know what was happening. A friend I was walking with asked one of the workers what they were doing, and he told her they were clearing trees to make room for a new buidling. Maybe there was news about this building going in at the location it was placed, but as mentioned earlier, we were all informed a new building was going to be built, but they were going to tear down South Hall and place it there. I guess they changed their mind? I've gotten used to seeing East Hall where it is, but I liked it a lot better when it wasn't there. As is life.

bgmaggot00 · Post by **bgmaggot00** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 2:51 am

The reason that I like East Hall is because of the interior. I always liked that when I was in an office, I could look across the lobby into other offices. I don't know if I'm just reminiscing about life in the city or what, but I just thought that thats a very interesting and unique feature of the building. To each his/her own, but I like East Hall where it is as it does help to form a "quad" over there.

MACMAN · Post by **MACMAN** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:20 am

AS long as they hold thier guns and never buid upon the old football field I' m Ok with what ever eclectic arcitecture stlye and building placement they choose.

It's the Journey... · Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:09 am

Well, here is the link for the master plan. This should bring up a lot of discussion.

http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/architect/masterplan/

BGSU33 · Post by **BGSU33** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:55 pm

It's the Journey... wrote:Well, here is the link for the master plan. This should bring up a lot of discussion.

http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/architect/masterplan/

Thanks for the link to this! This is the first I have seen any of this information. Do you know if there is a way to get the actual Campus Master Plan Publication as opposed to these pdf files? Some of these things here are very interesting.