https://mobile.twitter.com/jkarlgaard/st...00/photo/1

I can't make out those small words on the risers. It looks like they painted the steps royal blue..Nice

The steps got the fleck treatment as well.
It looks like carpet from the field.

This is only getting about an 18 hour jump for those of you attending tomorrow's OwlFest, but for the remote people...

The fleck/epoxy is not a smooth surface - I'd call it "lumpy".
This will help a lot with wet surface traction.

The new surface goes all the way to the physical gates at Gate 3.
Doubt they're going to do anything with the asphalt surface on the south end, above the non-seats and under the R-Room.

Steps, as seen from above



SW men's room



If they can find a way to clean the partitions, this will be pretty nice.
What kind of stainless steel rusts like that?



New entrances on the east side restroom renovations



It's nice tile...
That used to be a pee wall.



Local water heater - doesn't have to travel an impossible distance.



More of the men's room



The tile being used.
IMHO, this is even nicer than the tile on the west side.



Ladies' room isn't as far along



12" x 48" LED panels - no bulbs to burn out or change.
I installed an identical panel in my garage about 3 years ago.
Very bright.
This renovation impresses me - bright light, inexpensive, low maintenance, no dead bugs in the light diffuser.



East side concession area is flecked/epoxied.



NE concourse prepped for fleck/epoxy.



West side has nearly complete fleck/epoxy.



This side isn't going to rust any more.



All the way to the press box elevator

The lighting is much brighter.

(08-20-2022 02:15 AM)Ourland Wrote:  The lighting is much brighter.

Looks that way.
The LEDs are a higher K-value than the previous CFLs so it's more like daylight now, and they all work.

Grungy, the kind of stainless steel that rusts like that is called
stainFUL steel

Quick tip, a few cans of shiny silver paint on those will get us through for a few weeks or a couple months until phase 2 or whenever the new partitions come in.
(Ask me how I know… we did that on the wire racks in a popular chain of convenience stores about one week ahead of the health department inspection team one summer as my summer job while in school)

They Probably rusted that way because too many users were so used to the old “pee walls” and either didn’t want to change, or innocently assumed “that’s where we’re *supposed* to pee”

South scoreboard progress.
Image taken 2:32pm CDT, 29 August 2022

(08-29-2022 11:21 PM)Grungy Wrote:  South scoreboard progress.
Image taken 2:32pm CDT, 29 August 2022

That's the old one coming down?

(08-30-2022 02:03 AM)Ourland Wrote:  

(08-29-2022 11:21 PM)Grungy Wrote:  South scoreboard progress.
Image taken 2:32pm CDT, 29 August 2022

That's the old one coming down?

Yes.
On 22 August the crane foreman told me they had eight days to do the job.
He also said that the predicted weather was not in their favor.

The new Daktronics board is in slabs that key together. Bolt it in, provide power and Ethernet and it should be good to go. Considerably less complex on this end. Each of the slabs also comes with a cooling fan array.

Unknown if they get to use the frame from this old one to hold the new one up. That would be clever.

This is the previous north end scoreboard (before the one atop the EZF), but the resolution is similar.

I took Melissa Kean on a tour of the south end of HRS last week, and this is one of the things we found. I'd been in this room before, but hadn't opened the doors on this cabinet before.



It was installed in 1968 by General Scoreboards to control the team names on the forerunner of this scoreboard.
As this scoreboard is atop the R-Room, it may or may not be the same one that existed in 1968, before there was an R-Room. I haven't been able to find any images of the scoreboard between 1968 and the building of the R-Room.

(08-30-2022 07:35 AM)Grungy Wrote:  This is the previous north end scoreboard (before the one atop the EZF), but the resolution is similar.

Stylin' watch!

At least Rice Stadium hasn't eaten the visiting football coaches at halftime.

The ODU stadium elevator has broken down with Virginia Tech's assistant coaches that are supposed to be at the press box level, so the third quarter is delayed. It's been quite a while right now - no idea when the second half might start.

No end zone tarp yet?

(09-02-2022 09:08 PM)Ourland Wrote:  No end zone tarp yet?

Still none.
There's a big wad of (old) tarp(s) in the HRS west side dumpster.

They're cleaning up the tunnel this week, in addition to all of the other projects (fleck epoxy, SW restrooms, scoreboard, banner for lower face of the R-Room).
All of the parts of The MOB's conducting stand that I'd been painting in the tunnel (out of the rain) were moved to a trash pile at the edge of the south lot.
Did they ask first?
No.
I moved it all back to Section 116, and started assembly last night (that's why the lights were on in the stadium until 1:30am).
It's still hot at night, but not dangerously hot.

"It's a night game."

Tuesday, 2:43am (lots of processing to bring up the light values)



Tuesday, 6:37pm



Thursday, 12:54am



Awaiting crane-minutes...
Thursday, 1:11am



One of two panels awaiting uncrating and crane-minutes.
Thursday, 1:23am



In the future, if it's raining and you have one of the primo seats on the west side that's under cover, there may be a bit of water around your feet.



The view from the J. Fred Duckett PA Booth



Overall, HRS is looking great
Thursday, 1:18am



Gnote: the reason these pictures were taken in the wee hours of the morning - I've been reassembling The MOB's conducting stand in our new location at the front of Section 116. The temperature at night doesn't require cool-down breaks.

(09-02-2022 09:08 PM)Ourland Wrote:  No end zone tarp yet?

There will be no tarps.
The end zone sans seats will be considered "GA" (general admission), and fans can sprawl there as they see fit.

The leader of athletics' facilities group, Dan McGarry, came down to meet me in section 116 yesterday.
He brought along two of his employees, Justin and Charlie.
I met a third employee, Caroline, around 10pm on Tuesday night.
I'm impressed that they took the time to say "hi".
We spent about 10 minutes talking about the stadium projects.
Included: scoreboard, restrooms, the TVs and drink coolers in the Flight Decks.
I also mentioned adding the giant intimidating owl on the inside of the tunnel, facing the opposing team as they enter.

Add to the list: repainting the gate to the tunnel, and discussing the owl sculpture on the hill/corner of the bandhall.

Brain is failing to recall the name of the coach that crafted the wood owl-on-a-stick
It was left to The MOB when we moved into what had been the John L. Cox Fitness Center, and I volunteered to renovate it, but it was always superseded by something more pressing.
Now it's an old logo, in need of repairs and paint.
The current athletics people aren't trying to quash all of the old logos, but wondered if they could replace it with the current one.
I told them I'd prefer to keep it, both because I like it and because it was a labor of love by the coach who carved it.
Should we create a sculpture garden on that corner, with a variety of previous logos(on sticks), much like Apple's Icon Garden on their old campus?
I think a collection of owl logos on the grass of the southeast corner of HRS would be nice...

Former Men's Track and Field Coach Ray Davidson constructed the Owl. I just saw him at the recent Southwest Conference Athletic Hall of Fame ceremony (Kareem Streete-Thompson was the Rice inductee). Coach Davidson looks great and is an energetic 80. Four Owls head coaches were there (Bobby May, Steve Straub, Ray Davidson, and Jon Warren). Coach Davidson lives just outside of Waco in Robinson, and is a volunteer coach for the Robinson High School track and field team.

Would appreciate any posts with thoughts/observations on the stadium improvements and/or any pics you'd care to upload. Hope the crowd is better today than usual, after all it is the first home game of the season.

(09-09-2022 03:42 AM)Grungy Wrote:  

(09-02-2022 09:08 PM)Ourland Wrote:  No end zone tarp yet?

There will be no tarps.
The end zone sans seats will be considered "GA" (general admission), and fans can sprawl there as they see fit.

They must be planning on removing the concrete and planting grass in the future. There's no way they can leave it 'as is' for the long term. It's ugly and it's Busch league. Cosmetically, it's one of the biggest eyesores in the whole stadium.