Tuesday, July 8, 2008
The University and the Athletics Department ran into an obstacle while planning the construction of the Anderson Family Football Complex.
It wasn’t a money issue. Nope, the department had raised more than $30 million for the project. What the University struggled figuring out was how to build the 80,000 square-foot complex while still keeping the beauty of Campanile Hill intact.
Video
A walking tour of the new football facility.
“The hill is much more important than football,” Brad Nachtigal, assistant athletics director, said.
Along came a green solution. Warren Corman, University architect, said an architectural firm suggested building a portion of the facility underground and planting grass on its roof.
With the weight room set to be the biggest room in the complex at nearly 20,000 square-feet, Corman knew it could be constructed underground. Problem solved.
“There’s a lot of benefits from being underground but most people don’t want to live underground,” Corman said. “But in a weight room, there’s no need for windows anyway.”
The roof above the weight room was built about four times stronger than a normal roof. Eight inches of sand and a couple more inches of soil rest on top of it to feed the grass. Irrigation lines also weave through the roof so the grass can be watered.
Corman said the complexity and muscle of the roof made it more expensive to build but that it would save the University money in the long run.
Because soil stayed at a constant temperature of 55 degrees the whole year, Corman said the weight room wouldn’t have to be heated or cooled as much as normal rooms. He estimated the green roof would save the University $20,000 per year.
And, most importantly to Corman, the grass roof will blend in perfectly with the rest of the hill. People will even walk over the grass without ever knowing football players are hard at work 24 feet below.
“We really worked hard to maintain the integrity of the hill,” Chris Howard, associate athletics director, said.
The grass will be treated the same as it is everywhere else on campus. In addition to being watered regularly, it will be mowed.
On game days, fans will be able to roam on it freely.
“It is going to be used for tailgating, frisbee, whatever you want,” Corman said. “The only thing we will prohibit is we won’t let people drive long steel stakes through it and set tents on it.”
The only concern surrounding the roof is the possibility of it leaking. With so many irrigation lines running through the roof, a major leak seems likely to occur at some point.
But Corman said he was confident the University wouldn’t have to deal with that problem. He got re-assurance from other architects.
“We had experts design it from around the country and they said it won’t leak,” Corman said.
Corman said the University had wanted to build an environmentally friendly building for years. Stationing a quarter of the Anderson Family Football Complex under the hill provided the perfect opportunity.
— Edited by Mandy Earles
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