The Foster Pavilion officially opened on January 2, 2024 for the Men's Basketball game against Cornell. The Women's Basketball inaugural game in the Foster came against TCU the next day, on January 3. Both teams won their first contest in the new Pavilion. For more information about those games and the Pavilion itself, click
here.
With the steel structure taking shape and the J.E. Dunn Construction Group recently hosting a topping-out ceremony, the Fudge Football Development Center is maybe even slightly ahead of schedule for a Summer 2024 completion date.
“The topping-out ceremony is a great milestone,” said Henry Howard, Baylor’s Associate AD for Capital Projects and Championships. “Getting dried-in is a great milestone, turning the power on to the facility. Those last two are just ahead of us later this summer. So, it’s an exciting time, on-schedule. And for all those following the budget, it’s on-budget.”
Working overtime and weekends, project manager TJ Traylor’s crew is “putting the final touches on the steel, they’re finishing welds and adding braces and beams,” Howard said in an interview with “Voice of the Bears” John Morris.
“What I’m most impressed with is a lot of these workers are driving long distances,” he said. “They’re really sacrificing time with family and friends to make this facility the best that it can be so that our student-athletes can train and we can prepare student-athletes for life. I really appreciate their dedication, their professionalism. And it was fun to see them celebrate a little bit in that topping-out ceremony.”
At the same time the 110,000-square-foot Fudge Center is being constructed, the renovations for the Allison Indoor Practice Facility are being completed. When football camp begins on August 3, the team will be able to use the extended 100-yard turf field in the indoor facility, even though it’s still technically a construction zone.
“J.E. Dunn has worked tirelessly to get the Allison Indoor ready by August 1, which is essentially the report date for fall camp,” Howard said. “We will have all the amenities – HVAC, the speakers, we now have LED lighting inside the facility. The only thing that won’t be new inside is we’re going to wait to change out the Hellas turf until after this 2023 football season. They’ll still be using the previous turf, but it’ll be in excellent condition.”
The Fudge Development Center is being built on the west side of the Allison Indoor and the south bank of the Brazos River, directly across from the Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium. It will house the football coaches’ offices, football locker rooms, hydrotherapy and ancillary offices for the football support staff.
The hydrotherapy area will include a hot tub, cold tub, warm tub and a “massive walk-through tub,” Howard said, for injury rehabilitation and “so that student-athletes can recover after a practice.”
On the west side of the Allison Indoor, a climate-controlled skywalk will allow visitors the chance to watch the action on the grass practice fields or “actually be able to look inside the Allison Indoor and watch people train,” Howard said.
“It’s a great story, but it’s also very functional,” he said. “It will be climate-controlled, so you’re not walking those 110 yards in heat. You can actually walk on a second level and get to the Fudge.”
Hopefully, in early summer of 2024, Baylor will get a certificate of occupancy for the Fudge Center and start moving in the furniture, fixes and equipment, Howard said.
“The weight room is going to be spectacular,” he said. “I’m not going to name how much weight room equipment we’ll have in there, but we’ll have plenty of (weight) racks and everything will be state-of-the-art. We’ll have date and power to each rack, which is something we haven’t previously had.
“It’s going to be a hopping summer in 2024, but it’s a challenge we look forward to, and it really is a team effort working with the architect, J.E. Dunn, the football staff and many, many others.”
On the other side of I-35, the Paul & Alejandra Foster Pavilion is expected to open in January 2024, in time for the start of Big 12 Conference play for basketball.
Austin Commercial hit another “major milestone” in the construction of the Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavilion recently with the arrival of the switchgear that is used to regulate and protect all the power systems for Baylor’s new basketball facility.
“You have to have the switchgear before you can turn the power on to the facility,” said Henry Howard, Associate AD for Capital Projects and Championships. “Once you can turn the power on to the facility, you can engage the HVAC system and cool the building. You can work when you need to work, no delays because of the weather.”
That also allows for the installment of the maple wood courts in the arena and both practice courts, so that it can “start acclimating in the facility,” Howard said. The new basketball arena is located on the south bank of the Brazos River, just off Interstate-35 and next to Robinson Tower.
“It’ll take about a month before the power and the HVAC are fully turned on,” he said. “And then, once the HVAC is set, we can bring that maple wood in and let it acclimate for about six weeks.”
Once the floor is in place, and the graphics and logos are painted, portable risers will be installed.
“They’re called telescopic risers,” Howard said. “You can’t install the telescopic risers until the wood is completely set, because those bleachers go in and out whether you’re hosting a concert and event or you’re in practice mode. But it all starts with that switchgear. And I can tell you, I’m the most excited individual on campus today.”
While the Baylor men’s and women’s basketball teams will play their non-conference schedules in the Ferrell Center, the Foster Pavilion is due to open in January 2024 in time for the start of Big 12 Conference play.
“We’re on schedule to open the bowl portion of the facility in January of 2024,” Howard said. “We won’t open the development center portion of the facility (including practice gyms, weight room, training room and offices) until about a year from now. But schedule-wise, we’re looking good. And now that the switchgear is here, another milestone that we’re looking forward to is being dried in (by mid-August).”
Baylor is using the Robbins MVP (Maximum Vibration Performance) court, which is considered the “best technology in maple wood surfacing,” Howard said. The Ohio-based company supplies many NBA and college teams with the MVP court that was developed in 2006.
“It really protects the student-athletes from injury because it has a consistent give,” he said. “With some courts, you’ll have some areas that are dead and others that are not. But that’s not the case with the Robbins MVP. Not only will it be in the main arena, it will also be in both practice courts.”
Another addition to the facility will be a full wall of flat-screen TVs in both practice gyms, with coaches Scott Drew and Nicki Collen being able to give immediate instruction to the players via video.
“They can look up at the wall and say, ‘Hey, you need to work on this area,’ or ‘Set the pick this way,’’’ Howard said. “It’s going to be instant feedback, instant development. We’re just really excited about the technology that’s coming. And those trades aren’t even here yet.”
On the east side of I-35, work also continues on the expanded Allison Indoor Football Practice Facility and Fudge Football Development Center, with a scheduled opening of Summer 2024.
The Fudge Center, being built on the south bank of the Brazos River and directly across from the Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium, will house the football coaches’ offices, football locker rooms, hydrotherapy and ancillary offices for the football support staff.
With a favorable stretch of weather, Project Manager TJ Traylor said renovation of the Allison Indoor Practice Facility and construction of the Fudge Football Development Center are “on schedule.”
“We’re actually doing really well right now,” said Traylor, heading up the project for the J.E. Dunn Construction Group. “That’s always a struggle is not knowing what the weather is going to do. We’ve been able to get a little bit dry and make pretty good progress here. So, we’re looking good.”
Scheduled to be completed in Summer of 2024, the Fudge Development Center will house the football coaches’ offices, football locker rooms, hydrotherapy and ancillary offices for the football support staff. The Fudge Center is being built on the west side of the Allison Indoor and the south bank of the Brazos River, directly across from the Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium.
“The last time that we checked in, we talked about the steel erection and the following sequences,” Traylor said in an interview with “Voice of the Bears” John Morris. “We’re wrapping up on a lot of our foundation sequences now, so steel is up and rolling.”
In addition to extending the indoor practice field from 80 to a full 100 yards, the construction crew is putting in a new Welcome Center that will serve the Allison Indoor and Fudge Center, as well as a sky-viewing bridge along the west side of Allison.
“It’s a walkway between the practice fields and the indoor practice facility,” Traylor said. “It will give a vantage point for both of those activities, so it will be really cool.”
While it’s a “muddy mess back there at the moment,” Traylor said the foundations for the Fudge Center are nearly completed.
“Upon completion of the bridge erection, they’ll actually start back there on the footprint of the building,” he said. “And then, we’ll start erecting steel on the main building. . . . We drilled all the way down until you have bearing, and (the pilings) averaged right about 60 feet.”
While the Fudge Center has a projected completion date of the Summer of 2024, the Allison Indoor is expected to be ready for use when football begins fall camp the first week of August.
Work also continues on the other side of I-35 at the Paul & Alejandra Foster Pavilion, where the roof was recently completed. The Foster Pavilion has a target opening of January 2024, in time for the start of Big 12 Conference play for basketball.
As the calendar flips from March to April, it’s an in-your-face reminder that we are now less than nine months away from Baylor playing its first basketball games at the new Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavilion.
“We are counting down the days,” said Henry Howard, Associate AD for Capital Projects and Championships. “For the fans coming to that first conference game, allow us a little grace.
“Part of the development center won’t quite be done until the summer of 2024. So, (the teams) will still run out of different tunnels. It will seem normal, hopefully, to the fans. But we are going to have some operational hurdles to get over just to make sure we’re playing basketball that first game.”
Since the last Foster Pavilion update in December, though, Austin Commercial has made tremendous progress in the construction of the new basketball arena on the south bank of the Brazos River, next to Robinson Tower.
“The entire roof structure is installed,” Howard said. “There are six long-span roof trusses installed, and currently we’re working on the roof panels. There are over 20,000 square feet of roof that’s already been installed. And that’s really critical to the project, because once you get the roof on, it really allows the trade workers to get inside, work on walls, work on fireproofing, all the things that are critical to the infrastructure.”
Initially stored at the McLane Stadium parking lot “to speed up the process of getting it installed,” the precast concrete for the seating bowl is also in place.
“Once you get inside the building, you can tell how much closer you are to the action than at the Ferrell Center,” Howard said. “The Ferrell Center is an amazing facility, but it’s very horizontal in nature. The Pavilion is more vertical in nature.
“The furthest seat at the Pavilion is 54 feet closer than the furthest seat at the Ferrell Center when you talk about proximity to the court. So, even if you’re on the back row, you’re going to be right on top of the action.”
Austin Commercial also has completed the structural steel for the men’s practice gym, the weight room, training room and loading dock, while there is “about a 160-ton crane that’s working on the women’s practice gym,” Howard said. That’s the smaller of the two cranes that have been used on the job site.
“On the south end, there was about a 50-foot opening for a crane that was affectionately called Dr. T,” Howard said. “And Dr. T had about five feet to spare going in and out of the facility from the south plaza into the bowl area. It was setting trusses and lifting very heavy objects. It’s been disassembled and is off to the next project.”
Concurrently, Austin Commercial is working with the City of Waco on a parking garage at Clay Street and University Parks Drive that will include 450 spots for game-day parking.
“(The City of Waco) has been great partners to work with,” Howard said, “and they understand the urgency of getting that parking structure up. If we were without those spots, I don’t know exactly where we would park those folks, but they assure us that it is going to be ready. As you can imagine, building a parking garage is not as complex, although just as important, as building a basketball arena.”
The Foster Pavilion has a target opening of January 2024, in time for the start of Big 12 Conference play for basketball, while the Fudge Football Development Center is expected to be completed by the Summer of 2024.
Check back for the monthly construction updates at BaylorBears.com.
As the initial foundation work begins on the Fudge Football Development Center, the J.E. Dunn Construction Group is also extending the Allison Indoor Practice Facility.
“We’ve had a couple weeks of (demolition) activities where we’re taking off the south side of the Allison Indoor Practice Facility,” Project Manager TJ Traylor said in an interview with “Voice of the Bears” John Morris. “This building will actually come out another 30 yards, and we’ll put on a new lobby down here on the south side. We’ll start on foundations and then erection of steel sometime in April.”
The extension of the indoor facility is to accommodate expanding the practice field from 80 to a full-distance 100 yards and putting in a new entrance lobby. Tying the Allison Indoor to the “footprint of the new Fudge Development Center will actually be a sky-viewing bridge along the west side of Allison,” Traylor said.
Scheduled to be completed in Summer of 2024, the Fudge Development Center will house the football coaches’ offices, football locker rooms, hydrotherapy and ancillary offices for the football support staff.
“We’re on schedule, things are going good,” Traylor said. “We’re working some of our foundations and pier drilling . . . and you’ll be able to see steel here in the next 60 to 90 days. So, there’s some pretty big milestones coming up.”
The Fudge Center is being built on the west side of the Allison Indoor and the south bank of the Brazos River, directly across from the Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium.
“It’s a different layer, so we’ve acknowledged that as kind of a risk to construction,” Traylor said of the riverbank project. “However, I think when we’re done with the building, it’s going to really give you a ‘Wow!’ factor being right there on the water.”
The Paul & Alejandra Foster Pavilion, with a target opening of Spring 2024 in time for the start of Big 12 Conference play for basketball, is closing in on a “topping off” ceremony when the walls will also be dried in.
Check back for the monthly construction updates at BaylorBears.com.
Thirteen months from the scheduled January 2024 opening of the Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavilion, precast concrete is being set in the concourse area of the new Baylor basketball facility.
“Lot of activity going on. Looks like a big ant hill out here right now,” said Joe Thompson, senior project manager for Austin Commercial. “Working everything from putting in underground plumbing and electrical to, obviously, you see the steel going up.
“All of the seating – what we call tubs and risers – that actually will hold the fans’ seating in the stadium, that’s on precast concrete. So that we don’t impact the steel structure, those things have to go up simultaneously as we work our way out of the building. We’ll actually erect that at night, so we’ll do a second-shift operation there.”
Thompson was also part of the construction projects of McLane Stadium and the Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium that opened in 2014 and 2015, respectfully, on the east side of Interstate 35 and north bank of the Brazos River. The Foster Pavilion is being built on the south bank of the Brazos River, next to Robinson Tower.
“That was my first project to deal with auger cast files, so we learned a lot there,” Thompson said. “A lot of it has to do with the soil conditions . . . a lot of sandy soil. So, instead of a more typical foundation, we went with auger cast pile foundation. We drilled about 1,300 of those. Four to five piles would replace what we would typically do as a single pier.”
There is also debris in the site that came from the 1953 tornado that “hit Waco hard,” Thompson said.
“We’ve had some challenges related to that,” he said, “but we’ve managed them so far and we’re making good progress. . . . We are on schedule right now. Obviously, it’s an aggressive schedule; we’re used to that. But we are still anticipating being open for the first conference home game in January 2024. We have about a year left to be ready and have our temporary certificates of occupancy from the city that allow us to put fans in the (arena).”
Another big marker in the construction process is coming in early January, Thompson said, “when we start setting the big roof trusses.”
“That’ll be an exciting moment,” he said, “and you’ll start to see the roof this place take place.”
The Foster Pavilion has a target opening of Spring 2024, in time for the start of Big 12 Conference play for basketball, while the Fudge Center for football operations is slated to be completed in Summer of 2024.
Check back for the monthly construction updates at BaylorBears.com.
After months of below-grade work, the Paul and Alejandra Foster Pavilion is beginning to take shape with the placement of above-ground vertical beams.
“Unless you get excited about storm drains and utilities, not a lot to talk about there, but all critical work to the structure of the facility,” said Henry Howard, Associate AD for Capital Projects. “No one thinks anything is happening. You start putting a few vertical beams in the air, and everyone gets excited about the project.”
Being built on the south bank of the Brazos River, next to Robinson Tower, the Foster Pavilion will have 150 vertical columns and over 550 horizontal beams, Howard said, “and you can really see the progress.”
Walking into the pavilion at the event level, which will be the main entrance for 5,000 guests, there will be stairs, an escalator and two elevators up to the concourse level, Howard said.
“What you might think is the second story is actually the main concourse,” he said. “Unlike the Ferrell Center, we have three levels to the Foster Pavilion.”
Also going into place is the support structure for the basketball scoreboards.
“We don’t have a center-hung scoreboard (like the Ferrell Center),” Howard said. “What we do have is two ginormous end video boards. So, on the north end of the facility, they’re about to set the vertical beams and the columns to support that structure. It’s massive. It’s going to add to the game-day experience, and we’re really excited about it.”
While the event center bowl of the Foster Pavilion is on schedule for a January 2024 opening, Howard said the development centers that include the men’s and women’s practice gyms won’t be finished until the summer of 2024.
“You might have to excuse our mess a little bit for those first few games, but we’ll be ready to go for that January 2024 opening,” he said. “Both (the men’s and women’s development areas) will have beautiful views, taking advantage of the Brazos River. But that work won’t be completed until the summer of 2024. So, the teams will actually practice over at the Ferrell Center and then come over for game day until we get into that summertime.”
The Foster Pavilion has a target opening of Spring 2024, in time for the start of Big 12 Conference play for basketball, while the Fudge Center for football operations is slated to be completed in Summer of 2024.
Check back for the monthly construction updates at BaylorBears.com.
With “great partners” in Austin Commercial and AECOM designs out of Kansas City, Baylor Director of Construction Services JD Dethrow said the Foster Pavilion project is “on schedule” for a January 2024 opening.
“The market is very volatile right now,” Dethrow said in an interview with “Voice of the Bears” John Morris, “but we’ve got a great partner building the facility, Austin Commercial. They’re used to these types of large projects. They are on schedule, and we expect very good results from them.”
Being built on the south bank of the Brazos River, next to Robinson Tower, the Foster Pavilion is currently in the foundation stage.
“We’re drilling auger cast piles,” Dethrow said. “We’re at 1,400 of those and have about 300 left. Those really support the facility, the foundation. We also have some site concrete retaining walls going in place right now. And just some other site prep in preparation for the structural steel to start in 2-3 weeks from now.”
When the structural steel starts going in, “that’s when it will look like it’s going really fast,” Dethrow said.
“After that, the building skin systems will start,” he said, “but you probably won’t see that until early spring.”
While Baylor employees in Robinson Tower have faced challenges with parking, site access and construction noise, “they’ve been great partners through this process. They’ve been very patient and good to us,” Dethrow said.
With major capital projects underway on either side of I-35, Baylor Athletics is providing monthly updates on construction of the Foster Pavilion and Fudge Football Development Center.
The Foster Pavilion has a target opening of Spring 2024, in time for the start of Big 12 Conference play for basketball, while the Fudge Center is scheduled to be completed in Summer of 2024.
Check back for the monthly construction updates at BaylorBears.com.
With major capital projects underway on either side of I-35, Baylor Athletics will provide monthly updates on construction of the Foster Pavilion and Fudge Football Development Center.
“Voice of the Bears” John Morris, Baylor’s Assistant AD for Broadcasting, will have video interviews with Baylor officials as well as construction-site foremen to provide the latest information on both projects.
The Foster Pavilion has a target opening of Spring 2024, in time for the start of Big 12 Conference play for basketball, while the Fudge Center is scheduled to be completed in Summer of 2024.
“Both projects are going on at the same time and both are on schedule, I’m happy to report,” said Henry Howard, Baylor Associate AD for Capital Projects.
With the preliminary site work on the Fudge Center expected to start soon, the riverwalk on the south side of the Brazos River will be closed from the right-field wall of Baylor Ballpark to the student tailgating area behind the Mayborn Museum. The 2022 Baylor football season opens Saturday, Sept. 3, with the 10
th-ranked Bears hosting UAlbany in a 6 p.m. game at McLane Stadium.
Fans parking in the Ferrell Center for the football games are encouraged to either take the shuttle that picks up near Getterman Stadium on University Parks Drive and drops off at the “I Believe” Walkway, or walk alongside University Parks to get to McLane Stadium across the Umphrey Bridge.
Check back for the monthly construction updates at BaylorBears.com.
