Feb. 9, 2006
- Read about Iowa’s 2006 recruiting class
- Follow the renovation of Kinnick!
- The Schedule: 2006 and beyond
- Listen to the Hawkeyes on XM Radio
- Watch and listen to Kirk, the Hawkeyes
- Travel with the UI Alumni Association to Syracuse
Inch-by-inch, foot-by-foot, brick-by-brick, there are two virtually new concourses being currently under construction inside historic Kinnick Stadium.
On the west side of the University of Iowa’s prized football facility, the concrete “floor” to the concourse is slowly creeping from south to north. It’s currently at about the midway point. From there, rock and dirt and san reign supreme.
“It’s rather amazing. Where there was a wall a year ago, there is a concessions stand. Where there was another wall a year ago, there will be a new women’s restroom. It goes on and on up and down each of the concourses,” said Rick Klatt, the UI’s associate athletics director for external affairs.
“As for the press box, it’s equally impressive and will get more so each and every day as the facility’s steel skeleton grows and is eventually enveloped in brick and aluminum.”
The same progression is being made inside the walls of the west concourse. On the interior walls – the side of the structure where new restrooms are being created – the rooms are very well defined and the “exterior” brickwork is underway south of the 50-yard line. North of that point and, specifically, north of where the tunnel to the playing field exists, staff is in the process of assembling the steel that will support the to-be-built and poured concrete floors.
On the exterior walls of the west concourse, the rectangular openings that on game days will be concessions stands are slowly but surely taking shape. And, again, the work is further along at the south end of the concourse compare to the north.
The east concourse? The same layout holds true: Restrooms on the interior wall, concessions stands on the exterior wall. That entire space, however, looks more like the north half of the west concourse: Lots of debris, rock, sand and gravel although workers are beginning to pour the concrete floors for the concessions stands and entryways immediately underneath the signature architectural design of the facility: The pair of three-arch entrances on the east façade.
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On the west side of the University of Iowa’s prized football facility, the concrete “floor” to the concourse is slowly creeping from south to north. It’s currently at about the midway point. From there, rock and dirt and san reign supreme.
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For a peek at what the two concourses look like as of Feb. 9, click on the “Construction Progress” link behind the drop-down menu the “Photo Gallery” link on the home page of kinnickrenovation.com.
, the official world wide web site of the multi-million dollar renovation of historic Kinnick Stadium.
Mother Nature’s cooperation during the past three weeks has pushed the schedule for the stadium’s new press box ahead of its original timetable. As of today, the steel that will eventually connect the current north and south “towers” has climbed upward to the “service” level of the new structure.
If weather cooperates and work progresses as scheduled, fans visiting Iowa City will begin to get a sense of what the finished press box will look like both from the interior of the stadium when viewed from the west.
If you can’t wait that long, you can always take a look at the artist renderings of the finished project. Those rest behind the “Photo Gallery” link inside kinnickrenovation.com.