Northwestern’s Stadium Rebuild & What is the Ideal BDS@HGF?

MatatoGT

MatatoGT

Damn Good Rat
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Northwestern is doing a complete rebuild of their football stadium, reducing capacity by 12,000 but making it with all the amenities you’d want in a football stadium.

news.northwestern.edu

Northwestern releases early design concepts for dynamic new Ryan Field

One year after announcing a transformative gift by the Pat and Shirley Ryan Family to build a new Ryan Field, Northwestern University today released renderings of a schematic design for the new stadium to replace the current 97-year-old structure.
news.northwestern.edu news.northwestern.edu

Which raises the question- assuming the money was available (I know it’s not, so don’t get on that), what would the ideal renovation/redesign to BDS@HGF look like? What should our capacity be? Layout? Amenities? What are the best aspects of other college stadiums we should incorporate?
 
I say single tier oval that completelyy wraps the stadium with a noise containing partial awning. How an ENGINEERING school has managed to build the quietest stadium in cfb (because of all the gaps) is bewildering.

Idk if this would be an "amenity" but couldn't we build some kind of semi-circular, concrete overhang over each endzone student section so that during fg's and pat's the students can turn around and holler into the half dome structure to reflect and focus the sound waves into the field and potentially deflect kicks.
 
MatatoGT said:
Northwestern is doing a complete rebuild of their football stadium, reducing capacity by 12,000 but making it with all the amenities you’d want in a football stadium.

news.northwestern.edu

Northwestern releases early design concepts for dynamic new Ryan Field

One year after announcing a transformative gift by the Pat and Shirley Ryan Family to build a new Ryan Field, Northwestern University today released renderings of a schematic design for the new stadium to replace the current 97-year-old structure.
news.northwestern.edu news.northwestern.edu

Which raises the question- assuming the money was available (I know it’s not, so don’t get on that), what would the ideal renovation/redesign to BDS@HGF look like? What should our capacity be? Layout? Amenities? What are the best aspects of other college stadiums we should incorporate?
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Any drawings that show whether or not the new Northwestern stadium fits within the same footprint as the current stadium? From the drawings shown looks like they have tons of open space. Any discussions of a complete rebuild of BDS need to show what can be done within land/zoning constraints.
 
I hate the upper north. It makes zero sense for your highest seats to also be endzone seats. Why we mortgaged away the salaries of several analysts that could've helped win games is beyond me. It was a stupid move regardless, because we've only filled it up maybe a couple times, and it looks disjointed and bizarre.
 
The addition of the Gold Club seats in the Lower East caused our group of 10 season tickets holders to go from
the 40 yard line to the 10 yard line. To say that we were chapped is putting it very mildly! I hope in the future if
any modifications or renovations are made at BDS, the GTAA will reach out to the long-time fans for their likes
or wishes for improvements to BDS.

I concur with another poster, I would like to see a return to a natural-grass field, instead of this dull rug we
now have and also a must would be hand rails going up and down all aisles of BDS. Some of us who have been fans
for 64 years need those hand-rails!
 
Return the field to grass. Demo Wardlaw, bring back the lower bowl that connected the lower stands and had a street presence on North avenue; this includes the sick collonade that used to exist too. Lower bowl could have standing seating and suites, similar to Utah's new south stands. An awning could be added overhanging that end.

In an ideal world, you would do something very unique with the stadium. In this case, you connect Grant Field with Peters Park. You demo the Edge and Upper North. The north end zone is effectively open to the north, with grass extending though the existing plaza, creating (at least implicitly) a continual park from Grant Field to a renewed Peters Park (demo the parking deck). The next step would be to connect the upper stands. You would do this with an upper horseshoe that faces south(effectively spanning between the two lower stands and keeping the ground area open and free of columns - basically show badass engineering - you can incorporate some badass suites and offices there, and öööö it dorms too).

The overall form of the stadium is a balance between two horsehoes. The lower horseshoe (from before the 80s) faces north with an open north end zone, and it sits below the upper horseshoe, which faces south with an open south end zone. The lower horsehoe openess extends to Peter's Park, connecting it to the campus. The upper horsehoe openess up to the sky, connecting it with Atlanta.

Someday I'll design and render this öööö and post it.
 
AmpuTECHture said:
Return the field to grass. Demo Wardlaw, bring back the lower bowl that connected the lower stands and had a street presence on North avenue; this includes the sick collonade that used to exist too. Lower bowl could have standing seating and suites, similar to Utah's new south stands. An awning could be added overhanging that end.

In an ideal world, you would do something very unique with the stadium. In this case, you connect Grant Field with Peters Park. You demo the Edge and Upper North. The north end zone is effectively open to the north, with grass extending though the existing plaza, creating (at least implicitly) a continual park from Grant Field to a renewed Peters Park (demo the parking deck). The next step would be to connect the upper stands. You would do this with an upper horseshoe that faces south(effectively spanning between the two lower stands and keeping the ground area open and free of columns - basically show badass engineering - you can incorporate some badass suites and offices there, and öööö it dorms too).

The overall form of the stadium is a balance between two horsehoes. The lower horseshoe (from before the 80s) faces north with an open north end zone, and it sits below the upper horseshoe, which faces south with an open south end zone. The lower horsehoe openess extends to Peter's Park, connecting it to the campus. The upper horsehoe openess up to the sky, connecting it with Atlanta.

Someday I'll design and render this öööö and post it.
Click to expand...

In my mind this looks like a toilet seat installed backwards.
 
ciegetanks said:
I say single tier oval that completelyy wraps the stadium with a noise containing partial awning. How an ENGINEERING school has managed to build the quietest stadium in cfb (because of all the gaps) is bewildering.

Idk if this would be an "amenity" but couldn't we build some kind of semi-circular, concrete overhang over each endzone student section so that during fg's and pat's the students can turn around and holler into the half dome structure to reflect and focus the sound waves into the field and potentially deflect kicks.
Click to expand...
Grant Field is a far cry from the quietest stadium. In fact, it’s pretty damned loud at field level because the fans are right on top of the benches with no curve in the stands. When we have good games with good crowds, we are as loud as most anyone (except for lsu- they are next level).
 
savbandjacket said:
When we have good games with good crowds, we are as loud as most anyone (except for lsu- they are next level).
Click to expand...

Yeah this is the real problem. Early Johnson years and the good Gailey years we had 50k rowdy fans screaming. Now we are lucky to have 40k and the students are too busy with spirit fingers to yell.
 
savbandjacket said:
Grant Field is a far cry from the quietest stadium. In fact, it’s pretty damned loud at field level because the fans are right on top of the benches with no curve in the stands. When we have good games with good crowds, we are as loud as most anyone (except for lsu- they are next level).
Click to expand...

This. I've been to a ton of college football stadiums and when BDS is really rocking It's loud loud loud because the seats are right on top of the field. Doesn't even need to be full. BDS is only quiet when the fans are dressed like bleachers, which is obviously too often lately.

I'm a homer. I love BDS. I love the asymmetry and quirks. I love that the best seats in the the whole place are on the 50 yard line in the upper east when the lights are on. I love that all the seats are right on top of the field.

That said...here's what I'd do.

1) reduce Upper North by 15-20 rows. Could be done easily with additional permanent signage and scoreboard.

2) remove LE club seats and club. Find a way to make LE concourse much more spacious and grand with the additional space. Use multi level promenades that use all the space under the stands. Bring back dungeon restrooms with epic prehistoric troughs for nostalgic effect (maybe not)

3) complete teardown and rebuild of Wardlaw that includes seats, club, and lots of suites. Agree with epic re-engagement of BDS with North Avenue. Include street level fan store open year round.

4) replace all blue signage with white and gold. Tell Coke we love your money fam but the sign has to be in gold. For God sakes do better about commemorating our national championships! That sign is so subtle it's almost like we're embarrassed about it.

5) REAL GRASS
 
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GT flunkout said:
3) complete teardown and rebuild of Wardlaw that includes seats, club, and lots of suites. Agree with epic re-engagement of BDS with North Avenue. Include street level fan store open year round.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. Wardlaw is just fine as it is. You can't fit anything more in the limited space between North Avenue and the field. Close to the field stands (which used to be jam packed with students), luxury boxes, underground parking for $$ donors, and my favorite, the Tech Terrace.

The fan experience in the Terrace is awesome. Great food, specialty beers, drinks, deserts for the kids, big screen TV, tables, etc. The cushioned seats are right on top of the stands. It works.
 
grasscucks

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Wardlaw is horrible and was poorly thought out and planned. It is definitely 80's design.

Need natural turf. What we have now is crap.

I wouldn't object to rebuilding the entire stadium, like we did with AMC.

If you want to earn $$ to help the school, you could build a plaza on the south end with some restaurants or similar that could be leased year round. Have them high with some rooftop seating....blah blah.....

Definitely would need more luxury boxes to raise revenue. Maybe 4-5 floors on the sidelines.
 
If any of you actually gave a planck!öööö about the field, you'd be advocating for a better, state of the artificial surface. But you don't. You're all buttmad over literally nothing and you will flail in futility forever like the ignorant filthy hippies you are. Grow the öööö up. Turf is here and it will be here long after you are dead and buried beneath your beloved bitchass blades.
 
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