SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — The University of Notre Dame
announced a $400 million plan Wednesday to expand the school’s
84-year-old football stadium, adding thousands of premium seats plus new
buildings at the "House that Rockne Built."
The new buildings
will house a student center on the west side, the anthropology and
psychology departments and a digital media center on the east side and
music and sacred music departments on the south side, leaving the side
facing Touchdown Jesus unchanged.
The Rev. John Jenkins, the
university president, called it "the most ambitious building project in
the 172-year history of Notre Dame," saying more space was needed to
accommodate the university’s broadening research activity.
"What’s
exciting about this project is it brings together athletics, faculty
and academics, research and a student center, so it’s an integrated
model," Jenkins said.
Athletic director Jack Swarbrick said mixing athletics, student life and classrooms is what Notre Dame
should do.
"It’s
such a powerful symbol given what’s going on in college athletics right
now, that you can take the stadium and say we believe in the
integration of athletics into academics, and here’s the living proof of
it," he said.
The plans were presented to the university’s board
of trustees during their meeting Wednesday in Rome. The university
announced in May it would conduct a feasibility study.
Jenkins
said that the university now must raise the money, and that he didn’t
know how long that would take. He said construction would begin next
year at the earliest and would take nearly three years to complete.
The
buildings on the east and west sides will rise nine stories and include
premium seating, increasing the capacity of Notre Dame Stadium from
80,795 to more than 84,000, although widening seats on the benches could
cut down the number of seats. The press box will also move from the
west to the east side.
The south building will be six stories high
and include a hospitality area. The student center will include a
recreation center and allow the university to turn the existing Rolfs
Sports Recreation Center into the practice home for the men’s and
women’s basketball teams.
As for adding video boards for instant
replay or switching to an artificial playing surface — two issues that
divide fans — Jenkins said there’s no decision on that yet. Swarbrick
said a decision on the playing surface will be made soon, given that new
grass had to be installed three times last season because of repeated
problems.
The stadium opened in 1930, when Knute Rockne was coach, and had a capacity of 59,075 until it was
expanded in 1997.
The university said the club seating areas could also be used for academic events, classes, conferences
and career fairs.
Jenkins
said adding buildings to the stadium helps avoid campus sprawl, by
adding much-needed space to an area he described as a "crossroads,"
helping the university maintain a pedestrian campus.
The
university has expanded its research efforts in the past decade and
recently announced plans to hire 80 faculty in chemical and biomolecular
engineering, nanotechnology, analytical chemistry and biochemistry,
economics and nuclear physics.
"Our research activity has just
really taken off, particularly in science and technology, which require
lab space. So there is just more activity in that area that needs
space," Jenkins said.
Jenkins said the project shows Notre Dame isn’t being complacent.
"We
really have a vision to dream big and look at possibilities that
haven’t yet been realized. I see this as part of that ongoing effort to
dream bigger," he said.
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