When the 2003 college football season rolls around this fall, Texas A&M University athletic director Bill Byrne and head coach Dennis Franchione won't be the only new faces on the College Station campus.

The university's tradition-rich football program hopes to have a new $17.5 million football complex and academic center at its disposal by the time the Aggies host Arkansas State on Aug. 30 to kick off a new era under Franchione.

To be constructed near the south end zone of 82,600-seat Kyle Field, the facility will include new team locker rooms, training rooms, meeting rooms, coaches offices, a players' lounge, and approximately 35,000 sq. ft. for an "all sports" Academic Services Center for university athletes.

SpawGlass Construction Corp. of Houston is serving as general contractor, and project manager Michael Gonzalez is currently exploring ways to accelerate the project so the university can unveil the facility at its 2003 home opener.

Original plans call for the complex to be completed by Sept. 27 for a home game against Pittsburgh. But with a new athletic director and new head coach, the Aggies are eager to showcase their gem when the season begins.

"We are currently going through all of the exercises to see what it will take to finish in time for that first game," Gonzalez said. "We believe it is possible but there will be several contingencies that go along with making that kind of decision. We have to have a complete buy-in from all our subcontractors with a revised, accelerated schedule.

"We will also need quick response time from the architect. Probably the largest caveat to the entire idea of finishing ahead of schedule is going to be up to the architect."

Kim Cochran, principal with Austin-based design firm O'Connell Robertson & Associates Inc., said an accelerated completion date is extremely ambitious.

"We are in the process of putting together various phasing schemes that address an accelerated construction schedule," Cochran added. "Certainly what is most important to get the facility ready for that first football game is the completion of the locker room areas, treatment rooms, shower areas and everything that supports the game-day football aspect of the building.

"I would hate to venture a guess whether or not that can be completed by that first game.
Nevertheless, SpawGlass is attacking this project with a can-do attitude and we're ready to support them in any way we can."

Getting Started

Since the football complex and athletic center is located adjacent to Kyle Field, site preparation consisted of only a small bit of demolition. Four tennis courts and approximately 200 parking spaces were removed while the site was excavated to accommodate and reroute electrical conduit as well as water and sanitary sewer lines.

Bryan-based Kelly Burt Dozer handled the demolition and earthwork.

While the initial phases of the project went smoothly, obstacles soon popped up.

"Dealing with the relocation of utilities was a bit of a different kind of challenge because we were not able to start the foundation work the way we wanted to," Gonzalez said. "Because we couldn't get the concrete forming to cycle the way we intended, we were forced to start the foundation of the structure in the middle as opposed to starting on one end."

The result is a foundation in two halves, split laterally north and south. The north portion of the structure consists of an elevated slab on plinths, which in turn rest upon small piers. The south half was constructed of slab-on-grade beams over piers drilled approximately 40 ft. deep.

Houston-based W.W. Foundation Drilling Ltd. handled drilling of more than 100 piers on the project.

"It wasn't exactly what we had first envisioned," Gonzalez said of the unusual foundation process.
"But it worked very, very well."

Once the foundation was under way, Bryan-based Garrett Mechanical Inc. installed the sewer and domestic water lines while Britt-Rice Electric of College Station placed new electrical conduit.

The structure itself features cast-in-place concrete on the first and second floors while structural steel carries the roof's bowstring trusses.

When completed, the facility will contain about 11,500 cu. yds. of concrete. Querry Concrete Floors Inc. of Austin handled placing and finishing while formwork was completed by Houston-based United Forming Inc. Approximately 2 million lbs. (1,000 tons) of reinforcing steel was supplied by Texas Cold Finished Steel of Houston and installed by San Antonio-based Richard's Rebar Placing Inc. Palmer Steel Supplies Inc. of McAllen was the structural steel supplier.

Aggie Amenities

Sitting in full view of the more than 82,000 who jam into Kyle Field on football Saturdays, the new football complex is being planned as the crown jewel of the Aggies' football program. It will be one of the first sites on the itineraries of prospective recruits as Franchione attempts to return the program to the national spotlight.

And it appears he will be able to catch those young players' attention with amenities usually reserved for the most up-to-date NFL facilities.

The entire ground floor of the facility is devoted to football and features offices for coaches, trainers and support staff. The new home locker room will serve as the Aggies' home dressing room on game day. It features spacious millwork lockers, large storage areas for equipment and personal belongings and massive shower facilities.

The coaching staff will have its own separate locker room facility, while in close proximity will be training and treatment rooms for the medical staff. The complex features an X-ray room for quick diagnosis of injuries and a therapy room with three state-of-the-art whirlpools, including a hydroworks unit that utilizes a fully-functional underwater treadmill. The cost of the trio of whirlpools alone was more than a quarter of a million dollars.

Also on the first floor are several meeting rooms including a large auditorium with seating capacity for 194 student-athletes. Two smaller auditoriums, each of which seat 74, are designated separate offensive and defensive meeting rooms, while smaller areas are set aside for each of the individual positions to go over plays and study films.

The auditoriums and meeting rooms are equipped with the most modern technology for audio-visual presentations.

Room For Learning

Clearly, about three-fourths of the 115,000-sq.-ft. facility caters to the football program at Texas A&M. But don't confuse square footage with the importance of the academic portion of the complex. Featuring more than 32,000 sq. ft., the second floor of the structure's eastern wing houses the academic center, which consists of offices for graduate assistant coaches and academic counselors and advisers. There are 30 tutoring rooms, which vary in size as well as eight large common study rooms.

Also on the second floor are a spacious break room, large conference room, several fully equipped computer labs and a specialist learning center.

Best of all for Texas A&M student-athletes, the complex is not reserved strictly for football players. All personnel from each of the university's intercollegiate sports programs can make use of the academic amenities of the facility.

The north side of the second floor also features a plaza deck. The 17,000-sq.-ft. exterior terrace will be available for students who want a breath of fresh air during their studies and makes for an outstanding vantage point to view activities at Kyle Field.

The plaza deck will be finished with seating and other accoutrements including a surface of brick pavers imprinted with the A&M logo. Houston-based Chamberlin Waterproofing and Roofing installed the pavers.

Construction Continues

The majority of the structure's interior on the ground floor features a combination of concrete masonry units and drywall partitions.

"It is about 50-50 on the first floor," Gonzalez said. "The second floor is almost all drywall."

Challenge Construction of Manvel was responsible for the drywall installation while Houston-based Easthaven Inc. handled masonry work.

The exterior façade is beige brick, architectural precast and a generous amount of curtainwall glass. While the brick was designed to blend in with most of the rest of the buildings on campus, the use of colorful glass was somewhat of a departure for the university.

"It is a little radical when you compare it to some of the other buildings," Gonzalez said. "The dual colors are green-tinted and blue-tinted glass in the curtainwall with spandrel glass as well. There are also lots of arches in the overall design.

"Certainly colored glass strays from the norm around here as well as the aluminum window framing. Dark-colored bronze framing is what you usually see on campus. But I believe this project is meant as a showcase for the athletic program in particular and the university as a whole."

A radiused, standing-seam metal roof covers the western half of the building for an additional architectural flair.

The facility is part of the university's Championship Vision Capital Campaign and initiates phase one of the Stadium Master Plan. Future phases include a new parking structure, renovations to the concession area, new entry elements and the addition of more than 20,000 seats to Kyle Field.

"This project was originally designed to incorporate the added seating in the stadium," said project architect Chris Lammers of O'Connell Robertson. "So even though that portion will come later, we designed a master plan that allows the expansion to combine seamlessly with this facility. The plaza deck is constructed on the same level as the stadium concourse, so when the seating is added, a bridge walkway system will link the football complex and academic center to the stadium."

PROJECT TEAM
GENERAL CONTRACTOR:	SpawGlass Construction Corp., Houston
LOCATION:	College Station
OWNER:	Texas A&M University System, College Station
ARCHITECT/MECHANICAL & ELECTRICAL ENGINEER:	O'Connell Robertson & Associates Inc., Austin
DESIGN CONSULTANT:	Heery International Inc., Atlanta
STRUCTURAL & CIVIL ENGINEER:	Jaster Quintanilla & Associates Inc., Austin
CONCRETE PLACING, FINISHING:	Querry Concrete Floors Inc., Austin
FORMWORK:	United Forming Inc., Houston
REBAR INSTALLATION:	Richard's Rebar Placing, San Antonio
STRUCTURAL STEEL:	Palmer Steel Supplies Inc., McAllen
STEEL, PRECAST ERECTION:	Jett Enterprises Inc., Manchaca
MASONRY:	Easthaven Inc., Houston
DEMOLITION, EARTHWORK:	Kelly Burt Dozer, Bryan