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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Memorial Stadium (and Champaign) photos.

Regularly scheduled countdown post will come tomorrow...

until then, pictures of the stadium (and a few of campus) I took yesterday.



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Newly renovated IMPE (or ARC, i think is what they call it now) about to open.

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again with the (FINALLY!) renovated Rec Center at the north end of Memorial Stadium

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Memorial Stadium from 1st Street

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again with Memorial Stadium from 1st street. It looks like they are about to start putting the Brick on the center section. the elevators to the press box will open to the west, allowing people to step out to a great view of the Stadium Terrace fields.

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a not-so-great picture of the new Khan Tennis Stadium being build on the west side of the Atkins Tennis Center. The facility will have 12 outdoor courts and hopefully allow Illinois to host the National Championships as soon as 2010.


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you can see the new locker rooms and some of the concrete bleachers are built already.

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this is the old Horse Barn, along with one of the Chicken Coops, which used to stand behind the Atkins Tennis Center and Eichelberger Field (at Martin Stadium). These were both moved to a plot near the corner of Race and Windsor last week. The Mumford House, which is the oldest building on campus, currently located next to Temple Buell Hall on the South Quad, will be moved here as well. This will be a welcome center for the college of ACES.

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again with the old buildings.

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you can see the new 310 Burnham building rising up in the Champaign skyline (this picture taken from Springfield Avenue).

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This is taken from Wright Street and Springfield Avenue. the new building being built is where Tonic used to be.

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View of Campustown from 6th and Chalmers. The Penn Station building used to be Kinkos, the building behind it on 6th and Green was built on top of an old Wendy's in 2006. The new building rising up in the background will be an Urban Outfitters and UI office space.

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a closer view of the Urban Outfitters/Office building on the 500 block of East Green Street.

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View of 6th street from between Green and Chalmers looking South.

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View of Green Street looking west from 6th Street. The 24 story 309 E. Green building looms in the distance. A 20 story building will be built in front of it (from this view).


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The new (and about to open) I-Hotel and Conference Center at the corner of 1st and St. Mary's, located just to the Southwest of Assembly Hall.

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The hotel is supposed to be a 4-diamond hotel, and is operated by the same people who are building the Research Park.

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A Houlihan's restuarant is included

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on the east wing of the building is a new conference center (creatively named the "Illinois Conference Center") which will be operated by the University.


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Memorial Stadium from the South. Notice the new light standards are in place. Construction workers were doing something to the scoreboard, but I have no idea what.

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progress on cladding for the press box structure continues, the new light standards have been set in place.


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again...

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view from the southeast.

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closeup of the light standard and corner of the press box.

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inside the stadium, the north half of the new press box structure. Nearly all of the curtain wall for the stadium-side of the structure is in place

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picture of the press box, and the new field being installed.

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From what I can tell, the only real major changes to the field are the addition of orange and blue stripes at the 20 yard lines, and the team boxes are now orange, instead of white.

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somewhat tilted view of the west stands.

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crews work to install the new playing surface behind the south endzone.

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closeup of the concourse in the west balcony. I can't say I'm a fan of the 80's-esque Orange/Blue band next to the Classical Revival ornamentation of the SW ramp tower.

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still a bit of a mess to clean up. The colonnade club outdoor seating area looks done except for some brick on the columns... and seats.

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The North Endzone

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closeup of the west side.

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again, with the press box.

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closeup of the north section of the press box. notice the divders inside the suite seating area, and how the center section on the 3rd floor is slightly recessed.

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SE tower with the lights removed.

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Looking at the scoreboard.

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the seats have been renumbered to reflect the new seating arrangement. The section names haven't been changed yet.

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a picture that needs to be rotated... showing the details of the SE Ramp Tower.



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again, renumbered seats.

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Opening day is 45 days away.

10 comments:

Fire Ron Guenther said...

thanks for the pictures! BEAT MISSOURI.

Marc said...

Looks like they still think my ssa is only a foot wide.

Anonymous said...

How did you get into the stadium to take those?

Seth G. said...

I walked in...

the gate to the horseshoe on the SE corner was open, so I walked in adn walked into one of the portals to take pictures.

Last summer I went into the east great hall and into the bleachers every day for lunch and took pictures/watched construction, but there is work being done in there now so I didn't want to go in that way.

I've never had anyone say anything to me about walking into the stadium... I'd just avoid construction areas.

Anonymous said...

any pictures of the side opposite the club area? do you know how many rows are in the balcony?

Seth G. said...

those are all the pictures I took... there look to be about 15-16 rows in the West Balcony

Anonymous said...

Thanks - great pics.

Question: The glass front for the Colonnades Club has imbedded orange columns. Could you tell what they are - painted metal, wood, brick, what? I hope they end up brick.

Comment: The orange/blue stripes on the upper concourse aren't that bad. There are horizontal accent bands all over MS. The ramp towers have a narrow band over a thick band twice - at the top and again at the bottom of the balcony.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the 80's-esque wall butted up next to revival style architecture. Navy blue should have been the main color on that one.

Toki Wartooth (Joe) said...

much good, my hat goes off to you and your footwork around the CU. The kick off game with Butkus and throwback jerseys will be a helluva way to break in this new place.

Anonymous said...

Great pics, thanks for the update.

2 corrections though-- the picture of Penn Station restaurant you took is from 6th and Healey, not 6th and Chalmers. Also, the tilted picture you say is the west stands is actually the east stands.