For anyone interested. TU will construct a new IPF on campus just north of the FB stadium adjacent to the grass practice field. These are the intiial renderings.
This is from a twitter posting by one of our local newspaper writers. So just click the picture - "view all photos" and to enlarge, click the picture again.
(03-12-2015 10:40 PM)rabidTU2 Wrote: For anyone interested. TU will construct a new IPF on campus just north of the FB stadium adjacent to the grass practice field. These are the intiial renderings.
This is from a twitter posting by one of our local newspaper writers. So just click the picture - "view all photos" and to enlarge, click the picture again.
It's not adjacent to. It's on top of. Also I think that will get rid of the tennis courts as well. (not that I care about those.) I just don't like Tulsa getting rid of the majority of its greenspace. The aesthetic was one of the biggest things that got me to Tulsa.
(03-12-2015 11:20 PM)Kruciff Wrote: Good to see Tulsa is continuing to invest in furthering their AD. First the coaching hire, then this. Hope they continue.
Thanks.
The President of TU has instructed our new AD to come up with an athletic goal and facilities plan and this is evidently the first step. Next may be a few renovation projects and I believe the long range goal is to fill in the south endzone of Chapman Stadium with outdoor seating and at about the same time add more suites and boxes with the ultimate goal to surround the stadium with them. That would bring the stadium capacity to around 36,000 give or take. This would probably be done in incrimental steps every few years. Also, the word is that TU wants to begin increasing their enrollment over the next decade to about doubling the undergrad total. The campus would have to expand and it looks like they will do that. Our endowment is now back over $1 billion so we are recovering pretty fast after the downturn a few years ago.
(03-12-2015 11:20 PM)Kruciff Wrote: Good to see Tulsa is continuing to invest in furthering their AD. First the coaching hire, then this. Hope they continue.
(03-12-2015 11:20 PM)Kruciff Wrote: Good to see Tulsa is continuing to invest in furthering their AD. First the coaching hire, then this. Hope they continue.
Thanks.
The President of TU has instructed our new AD to come up with an athletic goal and facilities plan and this is evidently the first step. Next may be a few renovation projects and I believe the long range goal is to fill in the south endzone of Chapman Stadium with outdoor seating and at about the same time add more suites and boxes with the ultimate goal to surround the stadium with them. That would bring the stadium capacity to around 36,000 give or take. This would probably be done in incrimental steps every few years. Also, the word is that TU wants to begin increasing their enrollment over the next decade to about doubling the undergrad total. The campus would have to expand and it looks like they will do that. Our endowment is now back over $1 billion so we are recovering pretty fast after the downturn a few years ago.
I'm interested to see which majors they start pushing as Petroleum is down right now. In the last couple years, about 1/4th of the incoming classes started as PE's. I'm thinking comp sci (Cybercorps) really picks up enrollment.
It looks like a really nice facility - much more pleasing to the eye than some IPFs I've seen. As far as where it sits, I think the only other option discussed was to tear down Mabee gym and put it there, but I heard that got nixed pretty quickly.
(03-12-2015 11:20 PM)Kruciff Wrote: Good to see Tulsa is continuing to invest in furthering their AD. First the coaching hire, then this. Hope they continue.
This athletic director is surprising me a bit. Hiring Haith and Monty and full steam ahead with this.
I'm fine with the placement. That's the practice field now anyway and some janky tennis courts. I don't think there was any better options and IMO this isn't the kind of structure you want more visible from the outskirts of campus.
(This post was last modified: 03-13-2015 09:33 AM by TUBballJunkie.)
I'm just saying, that Harwell field is used for a lot more than just the football practices. Heck, even the old tennis courts get a decent amount of use by students / kids. I understand that there's not really anywhere else to put the building without tearing something else down; but, TU is really going to have to start considering further expansion into the various neighborhoods surrounding campus soon. There's no space left for growth.
Maybe they could tear that ugly theatre building down ;-) (jkjk)
(03-13-2015 09:50 AM)invisiblehand Wrote: I'm just saying, that Harwell field is used for a lot more than just the football practices. Heck, even the old tennis courts get a decent amount of use by students / kids. I understand that there's not really anywhere else to put the building without tearing something else down; but, TU is really going to have to start considering further expansion into the various neighborhoods surrounding campus soon. There's no space left for growth.
Maybe they could tear that ugly theatre building down ;-) (jkjk)
I think they are addressing the lack of space - at least beginning to. I'm pretty sure the campus will spread west of Delaware toward Lewis. I read where the Kaiser foundation had agreed to purchase land there - buying up old houses and the like. Then they would give that space to the university for developement. Those new apartments along Lewis are part of that. So if I'm correct, the university will stretch to Lewis avenue at some point in the future, at least thats what it appears. TU has a campus about the same size as SMU (230 acres appr), but the Mustangs are kind of locked in by expensive housing and buildings. That really isn't the case at TU. The Kendall/Whittier neighborhood is an older one made up of middle class homes built back in the 30's and 40's - some/most in disrepair. So that should be the expansion area for TU when it wants to grow. And BTW, that also would mean more "open green area" if the university wants some.
Most campuses in urban areas tend to grow skyward rather than outward and has a lot of parking problems, but if those "green" spaces are figured into the plan, TU may be the exception. I remember when we had one "U" bordering Delaware, but now there is still that one and an additional "U" on 11th/route 66. So TU will change and I like that if its for the better.
As far as Harwell is concerned, I think there will still be room for 2 FB practice fields along side the IPF. Yes, the tennis courts will probably be gone, but when I'm on campus there are seldom used. And if something gets moved, the tennis courts would be the easiest to relocate. It wouldn't make sense to move athletic facilities all over campus and not keep them centrally located - forcing the altheles to navigate from one facility to the next. That would be like breaking up the engineering or law schools and forcing the kids to migrate from place to place to place. Not good. Some schools have to do that, but we shoudn't have that problem at this point. There still is a lot of open space at TU and I agree we need to make sure that is in the future design.
(03-12-2015 11:20 PM)Kruciff Wrote: Good to see Tulsa is continuing to invest in furthering their AD. First the coaching hire, then this. Hope they continue.
Thanks.
The President of TU has instructed our new AD to come up with an athletic goal and facilities plan and this is evidently the first step. Next may be a few renovation projects and I believe the long range goal is to fill in the south endzone of Chapman Stadium with outdoor seating and at about the same time add more suites and boxes with the ultimate goal to surround the stadium with them. That would bring the stadium capacity to around 36,000 give or take. This would probably be done in incrimental steps every few years. Also, the word is that TU wants to begin increasing their enrollment over the next decade to about doubling the undergrad total. The campus would have to expand and it looks like they will do that. Our endowment is now back over $1 billion so we are recovering pretty fast after the downturn a few years ago.
I can honestly say I would be ecstatic if this all came to pass. Tulsa would be the perfect institutional fit if it did. If all the private schools can attain mid 30's attendance, and the public's can pack in 45+ this will be a powerful conference indeed. Investment notwithstanding.
Reading of events like this is exactly why the teams that got into the American got in. Every single one of our institutions have made hard progress on investments and infrastructure, currently or in the recent past. I hope to hear next that Temple and USF plan OCS's, they're behind the 8-ball right now.
Big fan of a multi use practice facility, wish it was east of Harvard ave instead of eating up heavily used green space and tennis courts that are utilized. The university owns a lot of land that is just sitting there in the middle of town.
Also, Kaiser Foundation is trying to build up Kendall Whittier, I've attended a few planning meetings and there was no discussiin of razing structures to give land to TU. That area has a new school, new craftsman houses, new apartments, and new retail. The idea is to use that momentum to bring back the rest of the hold from TU to the Circle Cinema, RT 66 and the Pearl.
Imagine if the old highschool was the new college of medicine and then practice facility went in east of Harvard... Greatly expanded footprint. As it stands, many more estates +/- 3 blocks from campus are held by TU.
