Last Friday, the University of Texas at Austin held a grand opening ceremony for the Frank Denius Family Athletics Hall of Fame, a 24,713-sf space that is located at the north endzone of Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
The $17.1 million space, designed by Page and built by Turner Construction, includes 392 trophies earned over the decades by the university’s 20 sports teams. Visual and digital displays celebrate UT’s 55 national championship teams, 599 conference team titles, 144 individual national champions, and 171 Olympians who have won 145 medals.
The national champions are highlighted in their own 1,400-sf room with a 16x9-ft monitor that plays videos commemorating team title victories.
Also included in the Hall of Fame is an 8-ft-tall, 1,200-lb statue honoring the school’s mascot, the longhorn Bevo. The Hall of Fame offers a visual timeline of the 15 Bevos in Texas’ history since 1917.
Nashville, Tenn.-based Advent was a co-collaborator on this project, responsible for creating the “stories” that identify special touchstones and moments in the history of UT’s athletic programs.
John Roberson, Advent’s owner, had worked previously with Chris Del Conte, UT’s Athletic Director, when Del Conte held the same post at Texas Christian University. “Chris was brought in as a change agent, to restore the culture” for UT’s athletic program, Roberson tells BD+C.
That culture, he explains, is defined by stories “that are repeated.” Telling those stories required Advent to pull together the school’s trophies and other memorabilia that were scattered all over the place. For example, a Wheaties box that featured UT’s 2005 national championship football team and its legendary coach Mack Brown was found in someone’s garage. Trophies won by the school’s baseball team were located in crates in the basement of the team’s fieldhouse.
It’s not just the trophies that matter, though, says Roberson. “It’s identifying the heroes” and the narratives about individuals, teams, and special moments. Advent helped UT select those people and events using a proprietary process called “story mining,” which Roberson describes as “empathetic listening” to stakeholders. Advent used data analysis software to identify within those captured stories what needed to be told “to uncover the emotions” of the time and place.
“We’re transporting you, taking you back,” says Roberson, via images and interactive exhibits. “Memory is created by the experience that causes wonderment.”
A statue of UT's mascot, the longhorn Bevo, is prominently displayed in the Hall of Fame. Image: Rick Myers/Advent
Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial is the ninth-largest stadium in the world, with a seating capacity of 100,119. So, says Roberson, several hundred thousand people could conceivably visit the Hall of Fame during the football team’s season, which opened with a 45-14 win over Louisiana Tech University last Saturday. Roberson expects UT to also use this facility as part of its student recruitment effort, and to lease it out for events like weddings.
He believes the Hall of Fame is a “smart investment” for the university to recapture a space that had been a wide concourse and circulation area with a modest food court.
In conjunction with the opening of the Hall of Fame, UT has entered into a joint branding agreement with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee in an effort to strengthen Olympic sports programming at the collegiate level. The tagline for the campaign is “Olympians Made Here.”
The Athletics Hall of Fame is named after Frank Denius, an alumnus who passed away in 2018 at the age of 93. Denius was a decorated World War II veteran, having been awarded four Silver Stars and two Purple Hearts. He earned two degrees, in business and law, at UT, and supported the university philanthropically.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
And the world's tallest building is…
At more than 2,600 feet high, the Burj Dubai (right) can still lay claim to the title of world's tallest building—although like all other super-tall buildings, its exact height will have to be recalculated now that the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) announced a change to its height criteria.
| Aug 11, 2010
TCF Bank Stadium first new football stadium to get LEED certification
The University of Minnesota has received LEED Silver certification for its 50,805-seat TCF Bank Stadium, making it the first new football stadium in the country to achieve LEED status. Designed by Populous, Kansas City, Mo., the facility features a stormwater management system that captures and stores rainwater in an underground filtering system, where it is harvested, filtered, and drained int...
| Aug 11, 2010
Construction begins on Louisiana State Sports Hall of Fame
Heavy construction and foundation work has started on the new Louisiana State Sports Hall of Fame and Regional History Museum in Natchitoches, La. Designed by Trahan Architects, Baton Rouge, the $12 million, 28,000-sf museum will be clad in sinker cypress planks as a nod to the region’s rich timber legacy and to help control light, views, and ventilation throughout the facility.
| Aug 11, 2010
Modest recession for education construction
Construction spending for education expanded modestly but steadily through March, while at the same time growth for other institutional construction had stalled earlier in 2009. Education spending is now at or near the peak for this building cycle. The value of education starts is off 9% year-to-date compared to 2008.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Green Building
27. Next-Generation Green Roofs Sprout up in New York New York is not particularly known for its green roofs, but two recent projects may put the Big Apple on the map. In spring 2010, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts will debut one of the nation's first fully walkable green roofs. Located across from the Juilliard School in Lincoln Center's North Plaza, Illumination Lawn will consist ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Dream Fields, Lone Star Style
How important are athletic programs to U.S. school districts? Here's one leading indicator: In 2005, the National Football League sold 17 million tickets. That same year, America's high schools sold an estimated 225 million tickets to football games, according to the American Football Coaches Association.
| Aug 11, 2010
Giants 300 University Report
University construction spending is 13% higher than a year ago—mostly for residence halls and infrastructure on public campuses—and is expected to slip less than 5% over the next two years. However, the value of starts dropped about 10% in recent months and will not return to the 2007–08 peak for about two years.
| Aug 11, 2010
Nurturing the Community
The best seat in the house at the new Seahawks Stadium in Seattle isn't on the 50-yard line. It's in the southeast corner, at the very top of the upper bowl. "From there you have a corner-to-corner view of the field and an inspiring grasp of the surrounding city," says Kelly Kerns, project leader with architect/engineer Ellerbe Becket, Kansas City, Mo.
| Aug 11, 2010
Financial Wizardry Builds a Community
At 69 square miles, Vineland is New Jersey's largest city, at least in geographic area, and it has a rich history. It was established in 1861 as a planned community (well before there were such things) by the utopian Charles Landis. It was in Vineland that Dr. Thomas Welch found a way to preserve grape juice without fermenting it, creating a wine substitute for church use (the town was dry).
| Aug 11, 2010
Integrated Project Delivery builds a brave, new BIM world
Three-dimensional information, such as that provided by building information modeling, allows all members of the Building Team to visualize the many components of a project and how they work together. BIM and other 3D tools convey the idea and intent of the designer to the entire Building Team and lay the groundwork for integrated project delivery.