Venue reflects school's ambition to be Tier One in athletics, all else

Today's Houston Chronicle featured a front page article on the new TDECU Stadium that is being inaugurated tonight with the University of Houston football season opening game. The article mentions several key elements of Page's vision and design for the facility:

• "The University of Houston could have sold more tickets and made more money by filling in the open area between seating sections along the north concourse of its $120 million, 40,000-seat TDECU Stadium..." 
• "Sealing the gap, however, would have deprived fans sitting on the home team side of their stunning, unobstructed view of Houston's downtown skyline, illustrating the economic heft and tantalizing possibilities of the nation's fourth-largest city. The gap isn't an accident. It's a symbol." 
• "Our name includes the city of Houston, and we want to build a stronger connection," said Mack Rhoades, the university's vice president for intercollegiate athletics.  
• "But even jaded observers can find new and interesting elements in its design. The metal exterior skin and the seating bowl's configuration are designed to allow greater air flow than in many massive concrete structures." 
• "Fidgety fans can pace across most of the concourse without losing sight of the playing field, and the club seats and suites are closer to the playing field than in most football stadiums..."

As prime design architects of record, providers of plumbing engineering and joint responsibility for portions of the mechanical and electrical engineering, we'd like to bring attention to our TDECU project team members who also deserve credit for the stadium: 

• DLR Group (Sports Design Architect)
• Smith (Associate Architect)
• Manhattan (Construction Manager at Risk)
• Walter P Moore (Structural & Civil)
• Rogers Moore Engineers (Structural)
• WJHW (Audio/Visual, Broadcast & Acoustics)
• Clark Condon Associates (Landscape)
• The Bigelow Company (Food Service)
• 4b Technology (Security & External IT) 
• M-E Engineers (Mechanical Electrical Engineering, IT, Data & Telecommunications) 
• FTE (Field)
• MHC Consulting (Roof)
• Quatro Graphics (Graphics)
• All of the subcontractors and suppliers too numerous to mention
• And most important, our clients and users: UH FPC and UH Athletics.

To view the article in full, click here.