(06-28-2016 07:18 PM)cr11owl Wrote:  http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morni...rades.html

I don't have a subscription so not sure if there is anything new in there.

Here is the full text

Quote:Exclusive: Rice moving forward on massive upgrades to football stadium

Jun 28, 2016, 7:23am CDT
Cara Smith
Reporter
Houston Business Journal

Rice University is moving forward on several phases of renovations to its football stadium, with significantly more upgrades in the pipeline.

The private Houston university is in the process of installing a new high-tech scoreboard and sound system. The scoreboard, by South Dakota-based manufacturer Daktronics (Nasdaq: DAKT), costs just under $900,000, according to a building permit filed with the city of Houston, and Rice is one of only two schools in the country with a scoreboard of this kind.

Rice is also wrapping up construction of its $31.5 million, 60,000-square-foot Brian Patterson Sports Performance Center in the north end zone at Rice Stadium, which should be complete this fall. Dallas-based HKS Architects designed the facility and Houston-based Anslow Bryant Construction Ltd. is the general contractor, a Rice spokesperson said. That development includes an auditorium that will seat 150 people, a football team lounge with areas for training and sports medicine that includes hydrotherapy and plunge pools, according to Rice.

But the university and HKS Architects are in the midst of "some pretty intense study" on how Rice will continue to spruce up its football stadium, which was built in 1950, Bryan Trubey, who leads HKS' Sports and Entertainment group, told the Houston Business Journal.

"This is what great universities do first when they begin focusing on developing a program — they create the finest football operations facility they can," Trubey said. "That project itself is really representative of where the whole program is going."

Neither Rice nor HKS would disclose specifics regarding the stadium's renovation, but Doug Childers, principal in Houston for HKS, said that Texas Christian University's 2010 renovation of its Amon G. Carter Stadium serves as a good "analogy" for the scope of what HKS and Rice are discussing in Houston. TCU's $105 million renovation of its stadium included reducing the amount of seating to 40,000 from roughly 44,358, adding suites, a club level, a new press box and an exterior renovation of the stadium, ESPN reported. HKS also designed TCU's stadium renovation.

Trubey said that preliminary plans for Rice's stadium renovation include making it more accessible for disabled patrons, and offering more options for families.

“Rice is one of the campuses in the country that is only going to do the highest-quality build environments, so you've got incredible (academic buildings built by) some of the finest architects," Trubey said. "That’s one thing for us that's the most encouraging – what we do here isn’t going to be seen as a functional solution, but a example of how these kinds of projects should be done.”

A Rice University spokesperson said the university is in the process of trying to bring the next phase of the project into scope, and to pinpoint a price tag.
In addition to the Brian Patterson Center, Rice has announced a $2 million sports facility that'll include a grandstand, enclosed press box and team facilities for soccer, track and field, and cross country. That project should also deliver this year; Houston-based Jackson & Ryan Architects designed the grandstand, which will replace a nearly 50-year-old facility.

In recent years, Rice has renovated the Tudor Fieldhouse multipurpose arena, built the Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation Wellness Center and opened the new George R. Brown Tennis Center.

By the way, HKS, headquartered in Dallas, is a big firm that does a lot of stadiums, big hotels and hospitals. I have sometimes got them mixed up with HOK, the St Louis-based firm whose division HOK Sports became famous for designing Camden Yards and its progeny. HOK Sports was spun off as Populous in 2009.