UF athletics announces next step in renovation of Florida football stadium The Swamp
Florida athletics has announced the next step in its renovation of The Swamp, hiring Crawford Architects, in association with Gensler, to develop renovation, construction and phasing options.
Founded in 2001, Kansas City, Mo.-based Crawford Architects has a portfolio of historic renovation projects across the United States, including sports facility design. Its past projects include 68,000-seat Lumen Field (home of the Seattle Seahawks), the Minnesota Vikings training facility, Pegula Ice Arena (home to Penn State's hockey team) and the Green Monster seating expansion project at Fenway Park in Boston.
"The Crawford Architects Team is honored by this selection and look forward to collaborating with the University of Florida on this transformational project," said David Murphy, owner, and senior principal with Crawford Architects. "The Swamp is one of, if not the most iconic stadium in football. The building and its unique features offer a wealth of 'design assets' that the Crawford Team will draw on to create an enhanced game-day experience."
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Gensler is a global architecture, design, and planning firm with 53 locations and more than 7,000 professionals networked across the Americas, Europe, Greater China, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.
Built in 1930, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the football home for the Florida Gators, has expanded from 22,000 to its current capacity of close to 90,000 in prior renovations. The goal of the latest renovation is to modernize the fan experience while maintaining many of the traditional elements, atmosphere and capacity. Changes will come in upgrading seating, concourse layouts, entry gates, bathrooms and concessions. The sound system and video board will also be refurbished.
In July, Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said it would be "premature" to speculate whether seating capacity would be reduced as the result of the renovation, which comes at a price tag estimate of at least $400 million.
"We are looking forward to working alongside the design team on this historic venture," Stricklin said. "The coming months will provide specifics on what improvements fans can look forward to, along with details on timeline and costs for the project."
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida Gators athletics reveals next step in renovation of The Swamp
