The University of Arizona Lowell-Stevens Football Facility is a bold campus addition. It provides spectacular new club space, premium seating, and connects the existing elevated east and west concourses with a broad concourse containing extensive amenities that serve the entire stadium.
The building’s design takes advantage of strong light and shadow, utilizing a neutral palette of grays and copper colors to reflect the Sonoran environment. The narrow floor plate employs expansive glazing, making the upper levels transparent, framing campus and mountain views from the elevated levels while preserving sky and mountain views from within.
The primary public entry is formed by the Cherry Avenue gateway. This monumental gateway, created by the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility and northwest stair tower, provides an iconic connection to the main campus, with a matching stair tower on the northeast corner. The team entrance is centered along the building’s central axis, which bisects the stadium field, Beardown Field, the team stadium entrance, and the concourse’s central food court.
The project extends and completes the lower bowl, utilizing a wide elevated open concourse connecting existing east and west grandstands. This concourse has toilets and concessions for the new lower bowl plus portions of underserved existing seating, enhanced ADA seating positions and access, and a central flow-through food court open to the field side with views to Beardown Field, campus, and the Catalina Mountains.
The top level consists of a club with new covered outdoor seating that is comprised of 60 four-person loge boxes and an additional 300 club seats.
The university’s color palette and logo standards set the direction for the interior design. The challenge in this project was to creatively integrate the team’s colors and logos into the architecture. A neutral color scheme was used throughout, and the team’s colors of red, white, and blue were used to accent the architectural features. Back-painted glass and stone represent the school colors in the design. The clean crisp nature of these products is a pleasing counter-balance against the raw concrete elements of the building and the warm wood tones used in the millwork.
The ground level of the football facility includes a multi-story hall of fame, strength and conditioning room, locker room, equipment storage, and athletic training room. The level above consists of coaches’ offices, team meeting rooms, a players’ lounge, a study, and a 150-seat auditorium.
The university’s “A” logo transforms throughout the spaces. The logo is re-imagined as a lighting element, a textured pattern sandblasted into stone, and a super-graphic animating spatial transitions between public and private spaces.