Architect approved for new football facility
It’s only been less than five years since the Switzer Center was formally dedicated as the home of Oklahoma football in spring 2018.
But things change quickly in college athletics, especially college football. It’s not about being relevant now, but more about having the foresight to think ahead and never fall behind.
OU is hoping it has taken another step toward doing just that. The OU Board of Regents approved architect selection for the upcoming football operations facility project Wednesday afternoon in Norman.
“What we’re trying to consider is the ever-evolving world of athletics,” athletic director Joe Castiglione said. “It’s not trying to build something like everybody else at that moment. It’s what the program is going to need going forward. Obviously, we have a great setup at the moment but things are changing. We’re always of a proactive mindset. That’s what we’re doing with this.”
The HOK firm out of Kansas City will be running the show. It was a big step to get the approval because now OU and HOK can really dig deep into everything this is going to need.
“We can really be specific on considering all the elements of the site, how things would set up, what it would take and then be able to get into the components of the facility, the schematic design of how we bring all that together,” Castiglione said. “This has been part of our effort to be really aggressive in thinking about the resources that matter most to our program and it’s a big step to show that we’re serious about it.”
The facility will be adjacent to the football stadium as part of OU’s Campus Master Plan of Capital Improvement Project, and the word is synergy.
Synergy with updated facilities for strength and condition, nutrition, sports medicine, recovery and dining to go along with meeting spaces, coaches’ offices and practice sites and fields. Everything working together to be as efficient as possible.
The Switzer Center will still be vital to OU, but it will be used for other sports instead of football. And football clearly is not the only major project going on at OU. Castiglione mentioned updates to the west side of the football stadium and upgrades galore as it pertains to OU basketball, tennis, baseball and gymnastics programs and facilities.
“Really there’s not a sport out there that won’t have had some type of attention to their facility or just had something done to their facility in the last year or two,” Castiglione said.
Castiglione did give an update to the west side renovations. The original plan was for the west side to be Phase Two of the stadium renovations, but a lot has changed since that time.
“We've been meeting with the architect continuously to try and evaluate what that needs to be and how that's going to take place and the timing,” Castiglione said. “It's as big of an engineering challenge as it is to go out and raise the money for it. Like in any one of these projects we talked about there, they all have to be privately funded. So we make them happen when we can raise the money.”
As for the new facility, there’s no time to waste. As OU gets ready to make the move from the Big 12 conference to the SEC, time is of the essence to show just how serious the program is about doing things the right way.
“It's moving at a rapid pace,” Castiglione said. “Getting the architect on board is a key element to finalizing not only the timetable will be, but defining the actual scope of the project. Once you do that, there's the ultimate cost. We've done some very, very preliminary work to understand what that might be. Having this architect is the big first step, if you will, to be able to determine and define all of that.”