Historic Daytona International Speedway undergoing $400 million facelift

The Daytona International Speedway is zooming ahead on the largest renovation in the Florida venue’s 54-year history. Gleeds is serving as cost manager for the $400 million effort, dubbed “Daytona Rising,” on behalf of the International Speedway Corp.

Architect Rossetti will lead the improvements, which include five redesigned guest entrances, an extended grandstand with 101,000 new seats, and more than 60 new trackside suites for corporate entertaining. Eleven “neighborhood” areas spread over three levels of the communal concourse will provide open sightlines and dozens of video screens, allowing visitors to socialize without missing the action on the track. Barton Malow Company is the design-builder.

The vision for the redevelopment of the Daytona International Speedway front stretch places emphasis on the complete fan experience, beginning with five expanded and redesigned fan entrances, or injectors.
• Each injector would lead to a series of escalators and elevators that would transport fans to any of three different concourse levels.
• Each level would feature spacious and strategically-placed social areas, or “neighborhoods,” along the nearly mile-long front stretch.
• A total of 11 neighborhoods, each measuring the size of a football field, would enable fans to meet and socialize during events without ever missing any on-track action, thanks to open-sightline designs throughout the concourse and dozens of added video screens in every neighborhood.
• The central neighborhood, dubbed the “World Center of Racing,” would celebrate the history of Daytona International Speedway and its many unforgettable moments throughout more than 50 years of racing.
• Every seat in the Speedway front stretch will be replaced with wider and more comfortable seating, with more restrooms and concession stands throughout the facility.

The project broke ground in July 2013 and is targeted for completion in January 2016, in time for the 58th Daytona 500.

Portland State University’s School of Architecture is proud to announce the launch of its new Center for Public Interest Design, a research center that aims to investigate and utilize the power of design to make social, economic and environmental change in disadvantaged communities worldwide. The Center is the first of its kind in the nation.

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