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Alright guys, as I've done the past two years around this time, I interviewed associate AD Tom Gabbard, who's in charge of all the athletic facilities on campus and also has a hand in other projects as well. I got a full update on everything last spring but a lot has changed since then. This is all word for word from Gabbard, unless not in quotes:
MERRYMAN CENTER/JAMERSON
"The one thing we haven’t done is send the latest renderings because whenever you’re trying to do memorabilia and history, you wanna make sure that everything that you wanna get covered is covered and you don’t wanna overlook and say, let’s get it in just because you forgot about it. We’re working on the finalization of that now but essentially, from the interest of Merryman, all the way through the football office and then the downstairs of Jamerson, that lower exit where the football team comes in on their walk, that all gets redone with new graphics. The flooring, the ceiling and the lighting, the interactive screens, really a nice project."
"That’s really phase one, because we’re gonna do two more. We wanted to have Olympic sports well represented with some dramatic graphics on the lower level because their locker rooms are down there. We wanted football, with that Merryman entrance, people to walk in and see, 'wow, a football story.' When you walk into the main room of Merryman, that used to be covered up with that Legends Hall stuff. That all gets opened up, so that through that whole thing, you can see the new indoor facility in the background to see the whole picture. It’ll have a feature for Frank (Beamer), a feature for Justin (Fuente), a feature of famous athletes, famous games, uniforms, trophies. That should all be done in July. There's 1,220 exhibits and we’ll do an exhibit art. Snyder Construction is doing all the framing" Total cost for entire project in Merryman--- $1.7 million.
I asked Gabbard about Kevin Jones' involvement, as Jones has a degree from VT in industrial design. "He’s such a big part of our history, it was natural to let him grab on to the graphics."
VT photographer Dave Knachel and VT football recruiting's Thomas Guerry have also had input.
“KJ did a great job. He’s pretty talented. We asked him to do some concepts on baseball to see what we might be looking at. A couple of those are really creative, which gave us some ideas on what we could do with it.”
LANE STADIUM
"On the upper east side, the upper half of the east, all bleachers will come out and be resealed. Then we'll put the bleachers back in. Next summer is the lower east side, the summer of 2018 is the west side. It's all about making it dryer underneath. Somewhere along line, we'll replace the bleachers."
“We almost wish on the north end zone we didn’t put any bleachers because the students stand on them, anyway. They jump up and down. We have a structural engineer look at them every year because the last thing we want is for something to go wrong.”
CONCESSIONS, GAMEDAY AT LANE
"We did some major upgrades to concessions, with plumbing and electrical last summer. We want a few more outlets and by that, more opportunities to buy stuff. We're discussing creating a series of guest services spots. I want to reach out more to fans with kiosks."
CASSELL COLISEUM
"We did courtside seating this year and the new press seating. This summer or next, the three center sections of seating on each side of the court, we'll take all the wooden seats out and make a better quality seat, either theater or a nice padded seat. We just had presentations done from four vendors and we asked them to give us a good seat, a better seat. We're looking at this for this summer or next summer."
"Also down the road, but with the west entrance from lot 1, when you open those doors this time of year, it’s cold. I’d like to create an outer entrance to make it more inviting, add more lighting and eliminate the cold air. I'm not sure if that happens this year or next year."
Kiosks are coming for guest services, as well as more signage to explain where things are. Gabbard said there will be more opportunities to see television games, re-carpeting in the next few years."
BOWMAN ROOM
"I wanna make a kitchen, make bigger. We'd go out and up to do it. You can go out 20 feet, over top of Justin’s office, or put another floor on. We're coming up with study, but it's in the pre-mature stages. We have 550 athletes and the Bowman Room would seat about 200-220. We need a kitchen, bigger support space and put a patio and overlook on the floor.
"We can add to the sports information space, which would make space below it. It's all about structure. We've got an engineering study already started."
RECTOR FIELDHOUSE
"We'll be adding on to the front of the fieldhouse, the side next to the softball field, adding a new softball hitting facility. On the south side, same front, we’re adding a throws area, for track throws (shot and weight). We have very strong throws program. Last year, someone one-hopped a throw into garage door. If he would have hit door, it would have been world record and wouldn’t have counted. We wanna build a throws area that’s bigger, safer and more spectator friendly. On the north wall, where we’ve got the two trailers, I wanna enclose all that, have halftime locker rooms for soccer and lacrosse games, press room, training room, storage room for inside and outside."
ENGLISH FIELD
"In late summer, early fall, we'll renovate the baseball facility, add additional seating, tear down the press box and build new one. We'll have more radio and TV outlets, as well as enclosed suites."
"On the first base side, where we had temporary bleachers for the NCAA regional, we'll make that a permanent situation, but make it a venue with picnic tables, club seating and use the underneath for storage. If the money holds up, we'll build a family area with picnic tables, close to the right field line. I also want to build a clubhouse for the baseball team under the hitting facility. That's storage for now."
"We're Planning it right now. We're going to the board of visitors in March. We'll have a design/build project like the indoor fieldhouse, where we ask sports architects to combine with a builder, a set criteria (square foot, restrooms, money) and then we'll pick one. I want to get done this summer to break ground in the fall. It wouldn’t affect the playing surface. It would be ready for the non-traditional segment of 2017 and the traditional segment of 2018."
TENNIS FACILITY
"I really want to dress up the tennis facility with some locker rooms and lounges for the players. We'll give it a better entrance and a better look. Airport Road will dead end when the airport runway comes across. I want to make it something worth going to see."
460 INTERCHANGE
"It's supposed to be done in the summer of 2017. You’ll see where the VT hedge is, you'll see a roundabout put there and an entrance going out from the VT hedge. Down southgate to 460 as you know it now will be closed. That will give us chance to make some modifications to the cross country track and we're working with rec sports, making it a joint effort."
"VDOT hasn’t decided how it will work some stuff, so we're not sure how much space we’ll have. Do we have an acre? 10 acres? We need assurance on how big the interchange is."
