Our once-beautiful stadium has taken many hits from the Ugly Stick over the years. The first blow came with the building of the Edge Center. Brutalism architecture on the corner of a historic arcaded stadium and across the street from brick Gothic dorms was a bad move. The Edge Center sticks out like a sore thumb.
Next came the Wardlaw Building in the South. This "white elephant" not only reduced our seating to an embarrassing low figure, but was almost as ugly as the Edge Center. This building takes up tremendous real estate and gives Tech little back. Modern weight rooms and parking could have been included in any addition, the Wardlaw structure is a terrible solution to those needs.
Finally, we have the North Stands addition. This could quite honestly be the ugliest stadium addition in the country. We have all heard the excuses of why it looks the way it does....this is bull shxx. Lack of money and vision is why we now have this oddly engineered marvel. Tech AA wanted +/-55,000 seats "on the cheap", but screwed the pooch by also wanting premium seating(and lounge) in the East. The East stands demolition and renovation was so costly to do, that the North stands had to make up the financial slack for the total project to work. Only at Tech would AA officials actually reduce thousands of seats between the 25's in an effort to generate more money for fewer seats.
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The North Upper Deck is a bastardization that could have been avoided on the way to stadium expansion. Too late now. The stadium is so goofy looking now that any future attempts at renovation or addition should just play off of this "goofy" theme.
The stadium has many options for later growth.
1. A small double deck on the South stands with the Wardlaw building being modified.
2. Remove the Wardlaw, and create a large double deck in the South stands.
3. Triple deck the East stands.
4. Bring the West stands up to code (not a major expense as we are told it was going to be), and add seats in the NW and SW corners. These seats would not be seamless, but at this point, who would notice.
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Somebody has got to have the "Ugliest Stadium in America". It might as well be Ga. Tech.
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BOO
