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Pauley Renovation Moving Along

Bumped from the diaries. GO BRUINS. -N

Looks like we're moving ahead.  HOK Sport was chosen:

HOK Sport of Kansas City, Mo., was chosen by a selection committee from among 10 firms that responded to the school's request for submissions.

Among the renovations being considered are a retractable seating system to bring spectators closer to the court; new concession areas, restrooms and modern technology to enhance fan experience; new and expanded locker rooms, medical treatment and media rooms and dedicated practice facilities; a main lobby that would serve as a central entrance; and redevelopment of the area between the football practice field and the arena.

If you've been following new stadium/arena/convention center builds around the nation for the past 15 or so years, you probably know that HOK Sport is pretty much the "Standard" in stadium builds, or at least in securing pretty much every contract out there, including Camden Yards, Pacbell/SBC/AT&T Park, Petco Park, Busch III (my favorite of course), etc. etc.

Personally, I think HOK Sport is absolutely the right choice, and guarantees that the minute you see the new Pauley, the WOW factor is going to be incredible.  The one thing HOK Sport always does is that they incorporate one geographical quirk to work around (e.g. the Western Metal building at Petco, the view of the Gateway Arch and Mississippi River right over the outfield at Busch III), so I'm curious as to what one thing they're going to reuse.

Oh yeah, and one more thing, I GUARANTEE that the new Pauley is going to make Pauley East look like the Sports Arena as well.

Update [2007-2-6 19:28:59 by stevenucla]: Here's a link to HOK's past and current projects since I've seen quite a few requests for this list.

Update 2 [2007-2-6 22:45:59 by stevenucla]: Per BBR, one example of a college basketball renovation (as opposed to a brand-new build) is Wichita State's Charles Koch Arena. This renovation was almost a complete rebuild, since they pretty much only kept the roof, but they did it all for less than $20M.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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HOK has some gems
the one concern I have with them is they seem to almost be a cookie cutter firm at this point. All their baseball stadiums are brick and green iron. I doubt the Morgan Center will let them do something like that. They will ensure Pauley remains unique. Overall I think HOK is a great pick and will make Pualey the first rate facility Ben Ball deserves.

by ryebreadraz on Feb 6, 2007 11:43 AM PST   0 recs

Cookie cutter
Yeah I agree on the cookie cutter look with the baseball stadiums, because each stadium kind of looks like Camden at first glance.  I think they've done 10+ baseball stadiums at this point, and I think they all use red brick.  However, HOK has made a concerted effort to make each baseball stadium look completely different beyond the red brick, especially the geomeotry.  For example, AT&T park's dimensions are completely different than Petco.

However, I'm pretty sure they won't do the red brick thing with Pauley, considering the various basketball stadiums I've seen don't incorporate that brick/metal thing going.  If I were to guess, I'm thinking more glass since most of the HOK basketball arenas seem to have that, so maybe a ring of windows along the top of Pauley, right under the roof, maybe as part of the luxury suites.

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 12:57 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Brick
I wouldn't mind the red  brick look. It's kind of the signature look of UCLA's campus. Most of the newer, post-60s/70s buildings incorporate red brick into their design like the original 1920s buildings. I think an arena done with red brick would fit in nicely with the campus. A good design team could pull it off

by brubru on Feb 6, 2007 5:56 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Question
Has HOK been involved in designing basketball arenas?

by bluestreet on Feb 6, 2007 11:57 AM PST   0 recs

Basketball
Plenty.  This list, which is just a very, very, non-inclusive list:

Pepsi Center (Denver Nuggets)
Gaylord Entertainment Center (Louisville)
Toyota Center (Houston Rockets)
Sprint Center (NCAA BB HoF, where incidentally, we're going to play in next year for that tourney)

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 12:51 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Wow. Didn't see this on HOK's site...
...Now I feel a lot more re-assured about this.

MIM

by Meriones on Feb 6, 2007 1:58 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Some more
I added a few more to my reply to you over at BZ, but here's a few more I found:

Air Canada (Raptors), Bradley (Bucks), Philips (Hawks), United (Bulls), Miami (pre-American Airlines Heat).  The other big name in arenas is probably Ellerbe Becket, which would have been a fine choice as well, although, personally, I'm partial towards HOK myself since those are the stadiums/arenas I've actually been to.

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 2:10 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Thanks Steven
If you don't mind may I ask how do you know so much about this firm (just basic online research)?

by bluestreet on Feb 6, 2007 2:04 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

HOK
Well, when you follow baseball as much as I do, HOK is pretty much the top name you see over and over (and over) again with all the old 1950-60 cookie cutter baseball stadiums being replaced.  So as a new stadium comes out, I read the articles related to what they're doing, etc. etc., especially when the Cardinals replaced Busch last year.

HOK is probably most famous for their baseball stadiums (at least in my mind) because most of their stadiums replaced very famous and very old stadiums given professional baseball being around much longer than other professional sports in the US.  For example, they had to replace famous places such as Busch, Candlestick, Camden Yards, the Astrodome, Three Rivers, Veterans, etc. etc. so you can imagine the kind of fan bases they had to consider when designing the replacements.  That's why I personally have full confidence in HOK to do the Pauley renovation because I think they tend to strongly embrace the past in their redesigns.

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 2:19 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Research
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, that for basketball arenas, I had to do some basic online research since I also didn't know HOK's track record in that field.  A great place to look these up is at www.ballparks.com

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 2:20 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Thanks for the info
Are any of those buildings renovations, or have they all been built from the ground up?

Personally, I'd rather see UCLA build a new facility, but I know that's not going to happen.  This is still good news tho.  Especially since they are going w/ such a reputable company and didn't go on the cheap w/ the architect.

I've heard that UCLA has one large donor lined up.  Does anyone know who that individual/company is?

by insomniacslounge on Feb 6, 2007 4:05 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Renovations
Most of the builds were brand-new, but HOK has done some stadium renovations.  In terms of basketball, the closest I could find was Wichita State's Charles Koch Arena as a renovation (credit BBR for this find), but I think the word "renovation" is to be used lightly since the only thing they kept was pretty much the roof.

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 4:24 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Nice find
A suggestion Steven ... you should add another Update to your post and mention the Charlos Koch Arena.

Great thread. Lot of awesome info. here.

by Nestor on Feb 6, 2007 6:01 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Done
yeah, I've been doing quite a bit of research on this today because I'm starting to get really excited about choosing HOK.  I'm already starting to envision all the cool design things we might see!

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 7:48 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Moving along
Thanks for picking up the slack on this issue.  I'm happy to see things moving forward and hope this constitutes some real momentum.

by Menelaus on Feb 6, 2007 12:01 PM PST   0 recs

I would imagine
that this move is definitely much more solid than us picking an architect a few years ago.  For one thing, picking HOK shows a commitment by DG to put in a truly first-class sports facility.  I can't imagine HOK was even close to being the lowest-cost bid based on their reputation.

Personally, I'm very excited that we chose HOK.  The new Busch Stadium is absolutely kick-ass, especially the view of the Arch and the river.  Petco also has a great view of downtown San Diego, although personally, I think they may have screwed up with the shadows that drop along the third base line in later afternoon games.  I'm also curious to see if HOK is also going to make a proposal to build beyond Pauley, a la some sort of UCLA Athletics/Basketball village around Pauley, since HOK tends to do that as well.

When we put out that RFP back in December, I didn't even consider HOK because I thought that HOK would have been outside our price range.  This is probably the only firm where I would actually tell them, no restrictions, do what you want, because I'm confident they understand Pauley's historical significance and won't do anything to screw that up.

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 1:08 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

AT&T Park had lousy concessions workers...
...but it's a BE-YOO-TEE-FULL facility.  

Great sightlines, decent spacing in the rows, good seats, easy-to-read access between levels, not too steep (a la the Pond/ Honda Center) in the cheap seats.

MIM

by Meriones on Feb 6, 2007 12:02 PM PST   0 recs

Cheap seats
yeah, that's what I really like about HOK facilities, cheap seats still have great sight lines, so I think this renovation is going to be phenomenal.

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 12:42 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

They aren't "the Standard"
like Arizona is "the Standard" in the Pac 10 right?

Just messing around, good info though. This is the most advanced this whole renovation project has been since I can remember.

by Tydides on Feb 6, 2007 12:20 PM PST   0 recs

Unlike Arizona
HOK really is the standard for venue builds.  I just couldn't help mocking the "Standard" term.

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 12:41 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

One thing I'd really like to see done
is make Pauley steeper. Everyone that talks about the noise generated at places like Phog Allen Fieldhouse at Kansas talks about how it is so steep that the fans are right on top of you and it holds in all the noise. It may not be perfect from a viwere's perspective, but if it will make Pauley more intimidating I'd like to see it happen.

by ryebreadraz on Feb 6, 2007 1:08 PM PST   0 recs

Steeper
If I were to guess based on the few HOK arenas I've been to and seen, I'm guessing:
  1. Large, flat 100 section
  2. Small 200 section on top of the 100 section, so on top of the court
  3. Large, very steep 300 section on top of the 200 section, but pushed back a few rows
Perfect example of this is the Honda/Arrohead Center, which is an HOK facility as well (I forgot to put that on my list as well).  At the Tamu game, we were loud as hell, so I can imagine this should work.

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 1:15 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Duration?
Would the Bruin's have to play elsewhere for a season or two?
Where would they play?
Boisebruin

by boisebruin on Feb 6, 2007 1:33 PM PST   0 recs

We hashed this out
a few weeks ago, and my guess is that the basketball team is out for the 2009-2010 season at least, maybe 08-09 as well depending on how big the project becomes.  I think the official release a few weeks ago said that the team would definitely be out for at least one season.  I'm also guessing we move to the Forum, but your guess is as good as mine.

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 1:38 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Geographical quirk
Well, I don't think we have so many of those to offer around Pauley...but if they could come up with a cool way to display our 11 banners, that would be fantastic!

by tasser10 on Feb 6, 2007 2:22 PM PST   0 recs

Geographical area
Looking at a Sat map, you have the Santa Monica mountains to the North, and the dorms to the West, so that's a possibility for a view.

Also, although the project calls for the main entrance to be between Pauley and Spalding, I'm thinking that the area between Pauley and CTO makes a better entrance (on the East side) because there's a lot more room to play with.

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 2:40 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Yankees
As the "other" Yankee fan on this site, thanks for providing that link. There hasn't been much in the Central Valley of CA about the project.

by artybruin on Feb 6, 2007 5:48 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Sweeeeeeeeeet
Thanks Steven.

by Nestor on Feb 6, 2007 2:54 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

I'd knew you'd like that!
It's really cool that they're going to build a replica of the outside of the existing Yankee Stadium and put a modern stadium inside.  I guess $800M (not including parking) buys you quite a bit!

by stevenucla on Feb 6, 2007 3:00 PM PST to parent up   0 recs

Any word on this?
About 20 years ago they were talking about putting a monorail system to move people back and forth from a giant parking structure on the west side of the 405. Wouldn't it make sense to solve UCLA's parking problem and the Pauley renovation at the same time?

by alcor805 on Feb 6, 2007 5:15 PM PST   0 recs

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