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Stadium facelift to serve as cornerstone of campus building plans
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Construction on California Memorial Stadium, at a cost of just over $1 million and funded entirely through private donations, began in 1922. It was inaugurated with the 1923 Big Game in front of 73,000 fans, reported to be the largest-ever football crowd in the West at the time. Cal beat Stanford 9-0.
UC BERKELEY PLANNING PHOTO
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Berkeley’s 82-year-old Memorial Stadium will get a facelift and seismic upgrade as part of an ambitious development plan for the campus designed to better integrate the stadium and athletic activities with the surrounding campus and academic life.
The stadium will retain its existing footprint, but space below seating on the east and west rims will be rebuilt with new amenities for sports fans and state-of-the-art training and coaching facilities for football and 12 other men’s and women’s intercollegiate teams. Construction will be phased to ensure that the football team is displaced for only one season.
“Anyone who’s ever gone to a ballgame would like to see the stadium upgraded,” says CEE professor Nicholas Sitar, former chair of Berkeley’s Seismic Review Committee. “It’s beautiful and historic but long overdue for fixing.”
The stadium was built in 1922-23, before official recognition of the Hayward fault, which runs under the arena. Capable of producing a magnitude 7.2 quake, according to seismic experts, the fault poses a risk not only to fans but also to staff working under the west concourse and athletes during training.
“We have the talent, experience, and know-how to create a design that will provide adequate life safety,” Sitar says, adding that a previously vulnerable press box perched on the west rim was upgraded in 2002. The campus expects to select an architect this spring and have detailed schematic drawings and reliable cost estimates by fall. Funding will come from private sources, using a seat licensing campaign and other giving opportunities.
Also planned are a new academic commons building across the street from the stadium to serve Boalt Hall, Haas School of Business, and Intercollegiate Athletics, as well as a reconfiguration of Piedmont Avenue/Gayley Road with landscaping and pedestrian plazas that will enhance the everyday campus environment and the game day experience.
The stadium upgrade is just one element of Berkeley's long-range development strategy for the next 15 years, which outlines plans for 2.2 million square feet of building space, 2,600 new student beds, and 1,800 new parking spaces to accommodate a projected 18 percent enrollment increase.
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