Berry Center Makes the Grade

A Multipurpose Center Eases Demand for Facilities in Cypress

by Rob Patterson

The new Cypress-Fairbanks ISD multipurpose center combines five facilities into one, providing space for districtwide activities such as staff development, graduation exercises, performances and competitions.

Precast concrete beams and pans are lifted into place for the seating tiers of the indoor arena at the new Berry Center. (Photo courtesy of SpawGlass.)

Cypress' new $73 million Richard E. Berry Education Support Center and Athletic Stadium, constructed by SpawGlass of Houston, is truly a multipurpose facility.

When finished in March, it will provide the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District northwest of Houston with a 40,000-sq.-ft. football and soccer stadium and an adjacent 276,000-sq.-ft. building that contains a 9,500-seat arena, 400-seat auditorium, 16,000-sq.-ft. conference center and an institutional kitchen.

"It was like a puzzle, putting all the pieces together and making it work," said Irene Nigaglioni, project manager and partner in charge with PBK Architects Inc. in Houston, which designed the facility with consultant, HOK+Sport+ Venue+Event of Kansas City, Mo. Construction began in March 2004.

The unique center and stadium is thought to be one of the only integrated facilities of its kind in the nation containing all the various functions. The project grew out of the rapidly expanding school district's need for a number of additional facilities.

"We needed a place to hold graduations rather than renting venues and somewhere that we could do staff development activities for the whole district," said Jim Vangorder, senior project manager for CFISD's facilities and planning department. "The building developed itself on those two items. Then we wondered, 'What else can we use it for?'

"At the same time we had a need for a second football stadium. Our architect suggested that we put these two facilities together and get some cost savings."

Nigaglioni called the facility uncommon. "There were no precedents," she added. "We toured several facilities across the United States to see what had been done and get ideas about what worked and didn't work."

The site was once a rice paddy. Fill from a 32-acre retention pond that SpawGlass installed helped level and stabilize the ground on which the building and stadium were built at grade - aside from the auditorium pit and two loading docks.

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The 194,000-sq.-ft. arena portion of the building has a cast-in-place concrete frame on its first two levels and a steel frame on the top level. The other 82,000-sq.-ft. section is a steel-frame structure. Both have interior and exterior masonry walls with CMU infill and a modified bitumen roof. A 25-ft.-wide corridor topped by a skylight runs the length between the two sections to unite them.

The 11,500-seat stadium has a poured concrete frame for the bleachers lining each side of the field with precast concrete pans installed to form the seating areas. The 10,000-sq.-ft. press box and ramp towers are steel frame. An unfinished space underneath the bleachers allows for future expansion.

"One construction challenge was the interface between the different types of structure and coordinating the attachments," said Todd Hagood, project manager for SpawGlass in Houston. "When you look at each element individually, they're pretty straightforward. When you attach them all together, it gets complex."

The structural steel upper level and roof rises atop the new Berry Center arena. (Photo courtesy SpawGlass.)

Also daunting was installing the 20-ton, 220-ft. long-span trusses atop the arena to support the roof. "We didn't have 220 ft. of lay-down space at the needed angle," Hagood said. "The trusses were fabricated in five sections, and we assembled them onsite into two sections. Then we lifted them with two cranes and bolted them together at 65 ft. in the air and set them on the columns."

Concrete was primarily used on the stadium and arena for its durability and low maintenance factors. "And it turns out with the steel tragedy last year that the district didn't suffer," Nigaglioni said.

The project avoided the steel price and supply crunch by authorizing its fabricator, Safety Steel Services of Victoria, to purchase materials ahead of time. "We could see that steel prices were going up," Vangorder said. "We bought it, put it all in a bonded warehouse in Victoria and helped them maintain their profit margin."

All of the components of the complex serve multiple functions. The arena will be used for a variety of events such as graduation ceremonies, basketball games and concerts. Its two levels of concrete bleachers utilize precast pans for seating to accommodate 8,000. Situated below is seating for 1,500 people in retractable aluminum bleachers.

A rendering shows the building’s brick facade and traditional look. (Image courtesy SpawGlass and PBK Architects Inc.)

Dressing rooms on the lower level of the arena also serve as the stadium's field house. Another set of locker rooms across the hallway from the arena allow simultaneous athletic events to be held in both facilities.

A set of curtains can divide the arena into smaller segments for some events. "The design is flexible," Hagood said.

Similarly, the conference center area has movable walls that can be fashioned into multiple configurations of up to 16 separate spaces. It will be used for staff training, conferences and receptions.

The kitchen and food storage wing will serve events at the center and act as a central food preparation and distribution facility for the district's schools. The mechanical plant for the complex is situated atop the kitchen.

The brick and masonry facade of the building and the configuration of its sections break up its mass. "The building is 80 ft. tall at some points, and the limestone base helps reduce the scale," Nigaglioni said. "The district likes buildings that are traditional in character and look like schools."