Construction Continues
April 17, 2008 11:11 AM | General
April 17, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Construction continues at West Virginia University. In fact, it has never really stopped says Russ Sharp, associate athletic director in charge of finance for the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.
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| A rendering of the football stadium locker room expansion when completed this summer.
Submitted drawing |
“The Puskar locker room project is well underway which will include a new varsity locker room with 130 new lockers in one spot and renovations to the training room,” Sharp said on Wednesday. “We’ll be done with that project in late June or early July.”
The $4 million renovation project will eventually house the entire football team in one area. In the past, freshmen and walk-on players were required to use the visitor’s locker room. That area has since been renovated to also include the former academic study room. The Mountaineers are presently using the brand new visitor’s locker room until the team locker room project is finished.
“It will be a much more efficient space,” Sharp said. “In the old locker room they couldn’t get the entire team in there and now we will be able to do that.”
Across campus at the WVU Coliseum, preliminary work has begun on the massive lighting and scoreboard project that will be ongoing this summer. Contractors have already been in the Coliseum to begin planning the removal of the arena lights.
“They are doing some preliminary stuff now,” Sharp said. “We have reached an agreement with the folks that are planning commencement about removing some of the lights. The majority of the lights will still be in there – the ones that actually provide the lighting. The up-lighting – the ones that give a gold tint – those will be gone.”
When the lighting project is finished sometime in August Sharp predicts the atmosphere for events at the Coliseum will be significantly enhanced.
“It will greatly improve the light quality in the Coliseum. They will also be adding some lights similar to what you would find in an NBA arena,” Sharp said. “Of course our new lights will have the capability of going to all-black for introductions by using shutters.”
In addition to lights and a new video board, the Coliseum floor will also be redesigned.
On the second floor of the Coliseum work has begun on moving the Sports Communications Office upstairs. As part of the Coliseum master plan, all department offices with the exception of the Mountaineer Ticket Office will eventually be transferred to the second floor to provide more room for concessions, restroom and retail space in an effort to make the Coliseum more fan friendly.
“Some of those offices will be done at the end of the summer,” Sharp said. “We will also be utilizing women’s basketball’s offices and those offices won’t be available until the new basketball practice facility is done.
“It has yet to be determined if anyone will be moving up by the end of the summer,” Sharp added.
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| A rendering of the proposed basketball practice facility that will be located across the street from the Cary Gymnastics training facility.
Submitted drawing |
Sharp hopes to break ground on the new basketball practice facility in September. However the start of that project is contingent on fundraising.
“We’re still in the designing stages and it’s just a continuing process,” Sharp noted.
The architect for the Coliseum lighting project is Ellerbe Beckett out of Kansas City. Henderson Engineers, Inc., is handling the electrical portion of the Coliseum lighting project while Chapman Corporation is the electrical contractor.
Heery is doing the architectural work for the football locker room renovation project and March-Westin from Morgantown is the general contractor.
Ellerbe Beckett is the architect for the basketball practice facility.
Among projects recently completed include academic performance centers at the Coliseum and Milan Puskar Stadium, renovations to the men’s basketball office and additional premium seating at Milan Puskar Stadium.
