Staidum Renovation Exercise
If you keep an eye on the renovation webcam, you probably know that the brick on the exterior is just about done. I gotta say that I love it, and I'm very pleased with the direction it's gone. But I had a thought, just as a fun exercise:
If you were the stadium designer, had free choice on what to do, and budget wasn't really a concern, what might you have done with the renovation?
I love it as it is and I think it'll be great, but for nonsense, I think it would've been cool to play on the "Big House" theme.
Instead of long boxes down either side, you could have "guard towers" containing boxes and so on. Parapets on top, and barred windows along the outside. Obviously, the inside still gets big windows for good visibility for the boxes and so on. Between each tower, the pathways containing vending, restrooms and so on could be built to look like guard wall connecting each tower, or cell block sections, again, with barred windows built in. To get extra campy, vending stations and access to seating sections could be enclosed in "cells", gates and all.
I would have used nicer bricks. The bricks on the renovation don't look like the ones from the drawings.
except wrap it around 100%. not sure the lux boxes are economically feasible in the EZ, but hey if $$ isn't an issue...
I'd also like to see video boards that connect the two structures at each EZ, if not just continuing the lux boxes around.
I THINK the idea with the boxes as they are now is that they could actually expand bench seating in the end zones right up along the side of the boxes at a later date if they so wanted. Plus, nobody wants to pay luxury ticket prices to sit in an EZ.
I think they are planning to do that in the distant future. I read on umich.edu that they have designed this project with an expansion in mind: http://www.umich.edu/stadium/faq/ under stadium design
I would wrap the addition around more, but not all the way around. Then, I'd fill in the gaps with a huge, widescreen video board.
I would put a ferris wheel on the concourse
With cars like little footballs?
Do you work for Comerica bank?
and more wolverine statues
Don't forget about letting the kids run the field every Sunday.
And a carousel with wolverines and unicorns instead of horses
Like to see the addition come into the bowl more. There has to be a way to do this structurally. This would serve two main purposes; luxury boxes closer to the field and the noise would really have nowhere to go. It would for sure be louder then. This can be done without pillars, right?
Probably, but I think that would make the bowl look smaller.
Not so much. There isn't enough distance from the outside edge of the seating bowl to the outside of the new structures to cantilever the boxes out over the seats (at least not much further out than they are now). You generally have to go back twice as far as anything will cantilever out, as a rule of thumb. You also have the weight of each floor of the luxury boxes, which compounds the problem. Having said that, they probably could have the boxes project a little bit further, but not much.
I thought. I heard too that when a building is built, the pilons are twice as deep as it is tall. Makes sense. I am excited either way to get there this year and check out the progress!
and they are plenty close, as viewed from the inside. the sight lines are outstanding both to the field and the scoreboards. They seem far up and out, but from the inside you really feel like you're on top of the field.
i would put upside down seats above the bowl so that people could yell directly down at the players... then we'd trap the noise and it would have nowhere to go. The reason that its not loud is because of the shape, not becauase nobody is yelling. this way, if i cough, pryor will have a false start, blame Boren, they'll sissy fight and we'll win.
plus, fans would have to stand up cus they'd be hanging upside down and people couldnt complain about the old people who just want to relax and have a good time.
then id take the pre-rennovation toilets and put them up there (aka troughs). I'd build a 2nd stadium above it but upside down.
That would actually help the noise problem. A terrible idea, but it would make it louder.
So... football in a clam shell?
Awesome!
a roller coaster that stops at all the gates. It will go over the field, so that will be an attraction during the game, as well.
I would have had trapped doors in the field with caged, hungry tigers on chains in them (like in Gladiator) or perhaps real wolverines. And if that didn't work out, I would have turned the field turf into a sort of two-way mirror and put seats BELOW the field for an out-of-this-world perspective.
Actually, for a while I thought an upper-deck would have been pretty neat but I'm glad they did not go with that now.
"BELOW the field for an out-of-this-world perspective."
Just what ever fan wants a view of. Lineman balls.
Also, upper deck is of tosu and there for evil and wrong.
If I had an unlimited budget, I'd build up the facade to look like the Law Library. That would instantly make it the most stately stadium in the US. It would also cost eleventy billion dollars.
300,000 seats.
to keep the big house a "house" id add a nice porch, maybe a patio to have the neighbors over for a bbq. some real nice vinyl siding and a 100,000 car garage. perhaps a nice lawn to plant some begonias or hostas.
Awesome.
i would give everyone a real seat, but more of a stool with a back so everyone could be 1/2 standing 1/2 sitting and noone could complain, then i would put some tall buildings out of the stadium so people could sit on the top like they do at the cubs game. then put new widescreen all video bigger scoreboards....and to finish it off, only hot girl cheerleaders
I want one row of seats on top of the boxes. Just one row on each side.
and install a glass floor. now those would be good seats.
I agree that the bricks look comparatively cheap, and honestly, there is too much brick...or at the least, the new facade is way too plain.
They should have used some of the detailing from the original brickwork (http://krullconstruction.net/images/470_MICHIGAN_STADIUM_ROOF_POUR.JPG) with some of the flourishes above the arches and the stone/concrete/whatever trim to tie together the old with the new.
I also would have put ornate Michigan Union-style towers on each end (similar to what they have at Illinois and Northwestern).
Finally, I want to see them grow ivy in the brick walls, since not only does ivy provide a very collegiate feel and tie-in to the rest of campus, but with Ann Arbor being a tree city, having some greenery, especially on the Main Street side that towers over a block of low-rise buildings would be nice to see. (oh, and we can then watch it change color as we go through the fall).
