UC Berkeley Web Feature
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The Student-Athlete High Performance Center, faced in natural stone and surrounded by existing and new trees, will be nestled below the west wall of Memorial Stadium. |
Regents to consider Memorial Stadium-area plans
BERKELEY – The University of California Board of Regents' Committee on Grounds and Buildings will meet via teleconference today (Tuesday, Dec. 5) to consider action to certify the environmental impact report for UC Berkeley's Southeast Campus Integrated Projects and approve the design of the Student-Athlete High Performance Center adjacent to Memorial Stadium.
| Additional links Q&A Answers to questions about stadium area plans, including trees at the site, the Student-Athlete High Performance Center, and the project timeline • Master plan for stadium and southeast campus announced 11.10.2005
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The meeting is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. in closed session. That will be followed by public comment, a campus presentation, and consideration of the environmental impact report (EIR) and design approval in open session.
Campus officials and others will make their presentation at UCSF's Mission Bay Community Center Auditorium, 1675 Owens St. in San Francisco.
The EIR examines the entire, long-range Southeast Campus Integrated Projects program within the context of the approved 15-year growth plan for the Berkeley campus. The projects' overall aim is to renovate and seismically strengthen Memorial Stadium and enhance and better integrate athletic and academic aspects of the campus.
The student-athlete center is the first of the projects to reach design stage. The center addresses the campus's most serious concern for life safety at the site, allowing students and staff — the daily occupants of the stadium's offices and training facilities — to move into a new, separate building outside of the seismically poor stadium.
 A broad plaza atop the new Student-Athlete High Performance Center will host game-day and other activities along the west side of the stadium. |
The new center will provide training, sports medicine, and academic support facilities. It will serve as a hub of operations for football and 12 Olympic team sports for men and women. The design calls for 109,000 square feet of usable space (142,000 total square feet) in two levels. The building will be mostly below the grade of the sloping site to the west of the stadium, allowing full views of the stadium's historic west wall from Piedmont Avenue.
To accommodate the structure, many mature trees in the area will have to be removed. To mitigate the loss of the trees, the student-athlete center has been planned to preserve the health of the remaining grove by safeguarding its natural water supply and drainage. In addition, 142 new trees will be planted, approximately three new trees for every mature tree removed
The center's exterior will be made of stone to complement the natural setting, and the roof will form part of a nearly two-acre grand plaza for game-day and other activities outside the stadium's west entrances. Skylights and light wells will bring natural light into the building.
The other elements of the program, to come at a later date, include seismic strengthening and upgrades at the historic stadium, a new law and business building across from the stadium, landscape and site improvements along Piedmont Avenue, and a new parking structure topped by a playing field at the current site of Maxwell Family Field.