Texas A&M University's Kyle Field Developments

[Nate99]

One benefit of the original 1927 sections being torn down is that the new prefab brick won't jar with the older hand-laid brick.

 

The old stadium was pretty much all obscured (or obliterated) once the North end zone was done in the late 90's. The old arches of the original stadium were pretty cool, but alas all done in concrete, so there were no bricks to fell this time around. People were sad to see them go when that happened, but on balance happy that the stadium was finally getting an update. 

 

It's interesting how brick is now an ornamentation, but this application (which I think is actual brick on panels, not paint ala 806 Main) should look decent. It is made to look similar to the newly re-vamped baseball stadium across the tracks. 

 

 

Any advantage/disadvantage to these, other than cost? Is cast concrete more rigid than steel?

 

As I understand it, they are doing it this way for speed.  In order to not lose a season at the stadium, they had to prefab the structure somewhere else and then just assemble the whole thing on site. Construction the North end lasted probably a year and a half. The methods they are using this time will construct more physical seating space and amenities in each of the next two off seasons (8 months per).  They have built (cast in place) really large concrete columns up the back side of the East stands that will support the new awning/shade overhang/press box structure and presumably reinforce the existing second and third decks as well. 

For strength, I really don't know, but the previously free standing second and third decks on the East side will be tied in to the big new columns and the steel frame boxes on the corners, so overall stadium rigidity should be higher. 

[H-Town Man]

The old stadium was pretty much all obscured (or obliterated) once the North end zone was done in the late 90's. The old arches of the original stadium were pretty cool, but alas all done in concrete, so there were no bricks to fell this time around. People were sad to see them go when that happened, but on balance happy that the stadium was finally getting an update. 

 

It's interesting how brick is now an ornamentation, but this application (which I think is actual brick on panels, not paint ala 806 Main) should look decent. It is made to look similar to the newly re-vamped baseball stadium across the tracks. 

 

The arches of the first deck were still visible from the ramps and south ends of the stands until last year, although I had forgot they were concrete. Right, these bricks aren't paint, but they are prefab, with the giant seams that that entails. I personally like functionalist Kyle Field and Olsen more than their prefab brick successors, but the equation of functionalism with "commie block architecture" has made it a doomed cause for right now.

[monarch]

i'd have to say that i am extremely proud of aTm upon their quest to renovate as well as reestablish "kyle field".  they have taken a bit of momentum, and now they are shooting towards the skies.  

 

but please remember aggies...  TEXAS shall have a few plans of their own, and we all know just what that means...

[Nate99]

The arches of the first deck were still visible from the ramps and south ends of the stands until last year, although I had forgot they were concrete. Right, these bricks aren't paint, but they are prefab, with the giant seams that that entails. I personally like functionalist Kyle Field and Olsen more than their prefab brick successors, but the equation of functionalism with "commie block architecture" has made it a doomed cause for right now.

 

I forgot about the stubs of the old first deck sticking out on the South end, that is true. Seeing the old pictures really gave the arches a better effect. Once the upper decks obscured them, it became a big mishmash visually.  When the old horseshoe was still there, you at least could see a long unbroken span of them. 

 

 

I have not been in Olsen since the remodel, but I'd be more on board with more functional updates myself rather than spending money on whatever facade treatments someone preferred, but that's not what raises the money, evidently.

 

The "big brown box" approach seemed highly favored on campus, so fake brick seems a net plus in that direction, but I'm not too fussed about it either way. The construction scheduling and physical structure design is fascinating to watch happen in real time.  After they are all done, it will look like something cohesive and inoffensively but purposefully styled, where before it was an obvious amalgamation of different phases in plain concrete. The way the place looked never really made it remarkable at all, now it will be something, if not something spectacular to look at. 

 

Going off of pictures, I think the new Olsen exterior was actual brick, though again, just as ornamentation. 

 

[Nate99]

i'd have to say that i am extremely proud of aTm upon their quest to renovate as well as reestablish "kyle field".  they have taken a bit of momentum, and now they are shooting towards the skies.  

 

but please remember aggies...  TEXAS shall have a few plans of their own, and we all know just what that means...

 

There will always be opportunities to upgrade things in/around the stadiums, but apart from oneupsmanship, I don't see Texas expanding DKR to fit more people. But I suppose oneupsmanship is a big part of the reason that we Aggies designed Kyle to hold as many as we did, though we were specifically looking to go bigger than Alabama and Tennessee (both over 100K now) as well as Texas. 

 

There may be an all time record set this next season (I'm guessing at at the LSU game) when Kyle Field will hold ~110K-112K. After 2014, the west stands will be demolished entirely and their replacement will hold fewer people than the current 3 deck arrangement. That might lead to an historical anomaly for the largest crowd to watch a football game in Texas that would not be easily surpassed.

 

I'm sure it could be done, but I don't know how you would reconfigure DKR to hold 10K more people (or if you would want to). I guess they could double/triple deck the south end, but looking at it from the satellite image, it looks like that would get in to the east and west stand structure, which would be problematic on the upper decks, but probably within the realm of possibility. 

 

That would be a cool project to watch too. 

[H-Town Man]

I forgot about the stubs of the old first deck sticking out on the South end, that is true. Seeing the old pictures really gave the arches a better effect. Once the upper decks obscured them, it became a big mishmash visually.  

 

After they are all done, it will look like something cohesive and inoffensively but purposefully styled, where before it was an obvious amalgamation of different phases in plain concrete. The way the place looked never really made it remarkable at all, now it will be something, if not something spectacular to look at. 

 

 

I kind of liked the amalgamation of different phases... sort of like in the old medieval cathedrals, you could see the different styles of different eras. I liked bringing people to Kyle for the first time and pointing to those half-obscured arches and saying "that's the 1927 portion," then climbing up into the 1967, etc.

 

And the exterior west side of the stadium looked (imho) magnificent in concrete. Everything you saw was structural. The problem with these giant brick arches is that the brick is so thin, it makes the arch look like cardboard.

[H-Town Man]

There may be an all time record set this next season (I'm guessing at at the LSU game) when Kyle Field will hold ~110K-112K. After 2014, the west stands will be demolished entirely and their replacement will hold fewer people than the current 3 deck arrangement. That might lead to an historical anomaly for the largest crowd to watch a football game in Texas that would not be easily surpassed.

 

 

We will be making our stadium smaller and less loud for the sake of luxury, not to mention a sitting duck for some other school to surpass us. It's unfortunate, but I think college football as a whole is headed in a less egalitarian direction, less Spartan, as far as stadium design.

 

 

[Nate99]

I kind of liked the amalgamation of different phases... sort of like in the old medieval cathedrals, you could see the different styles of different eras. I liked bringing people to Kyle for the first time and pointing to those half-obscured arches and saying "that's the 1927 portion," then climbing up into the 1967, etc.

 

And the exterior west side of the stadium looked (imho) magnificent in concrete. Everything you saw was structural. The problem with these giant brick arches is that the brick is so thin, it makes the arch look like cardboard.

 

The look of it wasn't bad at all, just kind of there, the worst of it was that the design of the structural pieces severely limited the ingress/egress and infrastructure underneath the decks, especially the second where all the people that are paying for the upgrade had to sit and listen to their wives complain about the bathroom line. Scale it up to fit more stuff and keep the big cigars happy and it would look just fine to me, though the oblong press box screams early 80's. Going with an integrated press box like at Rice Stadium would look the best IMO, but there are still no good complete renderings of the interior West side that i have seen, so they may have something cool ready to go there, no idea. 

 

The plumbing and electrical needed major help as I understand it, that's what made some kind of renovation necessary in the first place. Things kind of snowballed from there. If it were my project, I think I would want to go toward something all structural, but given the construction schedule constraint, the boxed up erector set approach might have been the best looking option. Overall, I think they were going for "heft" which they will now have in spades. 

 

 

We will be making our stadium smaller and less loud for the sake of luxury, not to mention a sitting duck for some other school to surpass us. It's unfortunate, but I think college football as a whole is headed in a less egalitarian direction, less Spartan, as far as stadium design.

 

I'm interested to see what having the fully encircled playing surface that is deeper in the hole with the crowd closer in is like in person. Given how loud it could get with 75K and essentially open ends, it should be really fun with 1/3 more people, the majority of which will be crammed in closer to the playing surface than previously possible.

 

Someone will always want to go bigger than the last guy, all it takes is money. Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State are all already larger than the planned final capacity of Kyle. That doesn't really bother me much. Anything over 100K is absurdly large. 

[H-Town Man]

I'm interested to see what having the fully encircled playing surface that is deeper in the hole with the crowd closer in is like in person. Given how loud it could get with 75K and essentially open ends, it should be really fun with 1/3 more people, the majority of which will be crammed in closer to the playing surface than previously possible.

 

Someone will always want to go bigger than the last guy, all it takes is money. Penn State, Michigan and Ohio State are all already larger than the planned final capacity of Kyle. That doesn't really bother me much. Anything over 100K is absurdly large. 

 

As you mentioned earlier, the goal was to make the stadium larger than Tennessee and Alabama. When all is done, we will be larger than them by a thin margin of 1,000, instead of the 10,000 or so that we will be next year. That's a significant difference in terms of what they have to do to resurpass us.

 

I think an earlier generation of Ags would question why we would reduce seating capacity and loudness for the sake of luxury. Not going to convince you, it just seems like priorities have changed/evolved.

 

[Nate99]

 

 

I think an earlier generation of Ags would question why we would reduce seating capacity and loudness for the sake of luxury. Not going to convince you, it just seems like priorities have changed/evolved.

 

No need to convince me, I actually agree. The volume of rich alumni is reaching critical mass where they have money to spend and don't mind a bit smaller place if it means they can have a more luxurious experience.  In another time, perhaps they would have gone for more total seats, but they did not have the money in another time, so there you are.  While it was obvious that they wanted to make it the biggest in the SEC, if Alabama adds another 5K to pass us again, I don't see that as a big deal. 

 

I gather that these types of things only occur when you make very rich people very happy, so the process will hinge on a few people's preferences such that you either have gobs of new suites or nothing at all. It's all very much a vanity project, but with 20K more seats with many closer to the field, I'll be satisfied, you may not. There are always going to be tradeoffs.

 

I think @102K capacity, when combined with the usual atmosphere will be tough to surpass in terms of experience or volume. One can imagine a better scenario, but I don't know if you could ever get it built. 

[H-Town Man]

No need to convince me, I actually agree. The volume of rich alumni is reaching critical mass where they have money to spend and don't mind a bit smaller place if it means they can have a more luxurious experience.  In another time, perhaps they would have gone for more total seats, but they did not have the money in another time, so there you are.  While it was obvious that they wanted to make it the biggest in the SEC, if Alabama adds another 5K to pass us again, I don't see that as a big deal. 

 

I gather that these types of things only occur when you make very rich people very happy, so the process will hinge on a few people's preferences such that you either have gobs of new suites or nothing at all. It's all very much a vanity project, but with 20K more seats with many closer to the field, I'll be satisfied, you may not. There are always going to be tradeoffs.

 

I think @102K capacity, when combined with the usual atmosphere will be tough to surpass in terms of experience or volume. One can imagine a better scenario, but I don't know if you could ever get it built. 

 

Oh I'll be happy with a stadium over 100k, don't get me wrong. I just wonder how much the net volume increase will be mitigated by the thinning ranks of the first decks, on the student side due to ADA requirements, on the alumni side due to seat spacing and luxury. I think it will still be louder, but not drastically.

 

We might need to also stop using the term "tea-sippers" to describe our arch-rivals, as this was traditionally meant to imply that they enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle that farmers/soldiers didn't need.

[IronTiger]

The east end arches were visible in the Read Building, used as a rifle range (which I think it was originally). I got some pictures of it before Read was torn down, and they were pretty neat. However I am a bit sad that by the time they're done, none of the original Kyle Field will be left.

 

However, the football stadium is pretty much a driver of the local economy, and the dog boarders, hotels, and restaurants get huge profits from those weekends (the hotels price-gouge, often easily doubling their nightly rates)

[Nate99]

once "texas" completes it's plans as per the "south end zone" (SEZ) of DKR, it shall more than likely become the largest and most dynamic stadium as per north america.  estimated cost just for this one "end zone" renovation, are already being projected as per ($250 million).

 

quite a substantial sum just for one "end zone" renovation / expansion am i correct.  i cannot wait to view the forthcoming renderings...

 

Like I said, looking at the satellite image of it, expanding the south end to mirror the north, or something close to it would not be a simple undertaking, but anything's possible with money, and Texas' AD has a lot of that. 

 

You will forgive me if I look askanse at the idea of your stadium's dynamism, unless you are referring to its ability to quickly empty in less than perfect situations.

 

[Nate99]

Today they hoisted up the first of nine big steel structural supports that will hold up the new East side press box/canopy. The visual scale that it adds to the stadium is quite something; it will look absolutely huge standing next to it (or driving in from Houston around Greens Prairie Road (or whatever they call it now) for that matter). 

 

http://kylefield.com/constructioncams

[jt16]

I'll say this... DKR isn't exactly dynamic. A thread about the DKR expansion needs to happen (Monarch, why don't you start it). And people (large numbers of them) do care about DKR. This is a topic about the A&M stadium expansion though, so we should try and remain on that topic as much as possible. A&M clearly 1-uped UT in regards to this stadium, nicely done Aggies.

And I have really zero invested with either school. I just love the nonstop debates arguments between Aggies/Longhorns!

I'm an Aggie but I don't get worked up about it. It was embarrassing how aweful Kyle field was for so long. I'm proud of what were putting together now.

[Nate99]

Anyway...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mollusk]

just a contemplation from someone who's always cherished his neutrality in what used to be known as the Southwest Conference -

 

Wouldn't keeping snark on the very real Orange/Maroon rivalry out of an architectural forum be at least as good an idea as forbidding snark concerning a certain large city in Baja Oklahoma?

 

Edit:  I just realized upon posting that my avatar includes an orange tent.  The color of the tent is a mere coincidence.  Its predecessor was a large blue dome my friends named "The Yurt," yet I have no particular allegiance to Rice, either.

[arche_757]

^ha!  Indeed it would probably be a good idea.

Baja Oklahoma... never heard of that.  Love it!

[mollusk]

"Baja Oklahoma" is stolen from the title of a Dan Jenkins novel (actually set in Cowtown).

[Subdude]

Note a number of off-topic posts have been deleted.  Apparently it bears repeating that posts involving name-calling don't belong on HAIF.

 

 

 

[wxman]

It may be just me but it seems like the SEZ won't equal the height of the NEZ. I thought the SEZ would be taller than what it is shaping up to be. Alas, they aren't done so we'll see.

 

Also, in the renderings, it appears as though there will be maroon seating---unless those are fans all in maroon shirts. There is quite the contrast between the new concrete and steal vs. the old student section. Are there plans to at least powerwash the student side or something to give it more of a newer look?

[Nate99]

It may be just me but it seems like the SEZ won't equal the height of the NEZ. I thought the SEZ would be taller than what it is shaping up to be. Alas, they aren't done so we'll see.

 

Also, in the renderings, it appears as though there will be maroon seating---unless those are fans all in maroon shirts. There is quite the contrast between the new concrete and steal vs. the old student section. Are there plans to at least powerwash the student side or something to give it more of a newer look?

 

I was looking at the SEZ height myself wondering if they had topped it out with these latest extensions, but I don't think they have yet.  The renderings have a cantilevered support out to the highest points overhanging the Bright complex. 

[H-Town Man]

Wouldn't keeping snark on the very real Orange/Maroon rivalry out of an architectural forum be at least as good an idea as forbidding snark concerning a certain large city in Baja Oklahoma?

 

 

I too think that school rivalry comments don't belong on an architecture forum, and I hope that Texas can continue to fill seats in their stadium now that they've been surpassed.

 

[Scotch]

I stepped away from this thread for too long, thanks mods for cleaning up the mess.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nate99]

Thanks again for the pics. That canopy structure is quite something. 

[arche_757]

They're moving right along - amazed at the speed of construciton... of course there is a bit of a time-crunch.  Aren't the Aggies playing 2014 football season up at the Old Baylor Stadium?

[Nate99]

They're moving right along - amazed at the speed of construciton... of course there is a bit of a time-crunch.  Aren't the Aggies playing 2014 football season up at the Old Baylor Stadium?

 

No, they will be playing at Kyle. 

 

The still standing old West side will come down in its entirety via "controlled collapse" in November after the 2014 season.They are moving crazy fast on this. 

[arche_757]

Really?  I was kidding about the Baylor Stadium thing...figured if A&M was going to play away from home they would do that in Houston at Reliant Stadium?

 

Amazing to think they're going to play there while its under construction.  I've never heard of that - not a full on total stadium redo, maybe a smaller addition or "Zone" type of addition, but not a total redo of the stadium.

[Nate99]

There was quite a stink about the construction plans. Some options included a season at Reliant/NRG in Houston while they did the redevelopment in one whole shot, but at the end of the day, the University listened to local hotel owners (and other businesses) that basically only make a profit because they can charge max rates for 16 nights a year. To accommodate, they decided to do this phased with the West side to be completely rebuilt and tied in to the rest prior to the 2015 season. 

 

The plan is to have everything on the new South end and East first deck/NE corner to be fully open and operational. It will be a bit mismatched with the existing West side for the 2014 season, but otherwise construction going on during the season should just be limited to peripherals, not the structure itself. 

 

Here is a video uploaded yesterday, feel free to mute if you don't want to hear the War Hymn.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpAqoidLQTo

[mollusk]

It's aways amazing to watch the different ways people come up with to wrap major construction around an existing structure still in use.