Board of Trustees votes to approve architects

[aubiefifty 18,222]

Auburn Board of Trustees votes to approve architects for standalone football complex

Auburn’s journey toward building a new standalone football facility took an important step forward on Monday morning.

The university’s Board of Trustees, during an emergency meeting via teleconference, voted to approve the architects for the proposed Football Performance Center project that was previously approved in September. The architecture firms of Goodwyn, Mills, Cawood of Montgomery and HOK Architects of Kansas City, Mo., were selected by the university for the project.

The two firms previously worked with Auburn on the Harbert Family Recruiting Center in the southwest corner of Jordan-Hare Stadium that was opened prior to the 2018 season.

The approval of the firms was limited to “the project planning and design development to the schematic design phase until such time as the program requirements, budget, funding plan, and site are approved by the Board.”

Those details have yet to be disclosed or settled upon by Auburn, though the most logical site for the project appears to be the Old Track on Biggio Drive. The plan for the Football Performance Center appears to be on the fast-track following last month’s project approval -- especially given the timing of Monday’s emergency meeting, which is less than a month before the Board of Trustees’ next scheduled meeting on Nov. 22.

A standalone football facility has long been atop the wishlist of seventh-year head coach Gus Malzahn, who -- along with his wife Kristi -- last year pledged to donate $2 million toward the funding of the project. The entirety of the project is expected to be paid with athletics department funding -- through university general revenue bonds -- and donations from boosters, as well as the donation from the Malzahns.

While a timeline on the Football Performance Center project is currently unclear, athletics director Allen Greene said last month that the timeline for such facilities are “pretty consistent across the board” from what he has seen from other programs. Greene said the design process typically takes up to one year, with construction on the facility requiring about two years to complete.

Ten architectural teams submitted their qualifications to Auburn since the project initiation was approved last month. From that group, four were interviewed by the Architect Selection Committee before it settled on the pairing of Goodwyn, Mills, Cawood and HOK Architects.

Auburn is confident that a standalone football facility is needed to “successfully compete within the Southeastern Conference and national peer programs” and that such a building will “enhance student-athlete development.” The new facility designed by those two firms will include dedicated space for strength and conditioning, healthy and recovery, and sports science, as well as team meeting rooms, coach and staff offices, equipment storage space and common areas.

“We have thought about what would be in it," Greene said last month. "So four walls are four walls, but I think paying particular attention about the details of what’s inside and the functionality will set our facility apart from others.... We don’t have any firm designs, but we’ve got some concepts in terms of technology that may be able to rival some others.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

[Zeek 16,953]

48 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

The two firms previously worked with Auburn on the Harbert Family Recruiting Center in the southwest corner of Jordan-Hare Stadium that was opened prior to the 2018 season.

This would be promising if we heard the facility would be connected to Jordan Hare. Since they've already shown experience connecting a structure to JHS seamlessly. After our underwhelming locker room I'm not confident in this project; especially once I saw the $60 million price tag... most of our recruiting rivals have spent twice as much on similar facilities.

Survey current, former, and potential Auburn football players for what they believe should be included. Hit up Auburn players who have made it to the pros for funding of specific portions of the building. For example, if coach Cadillac and Brown want to pay for the dining hall it could be the Williams-Brown dining hall with imagery and memorabilia of the two honoring their time here on the plains.

GET IN TOUCH WITH APPLE. Auburn should have some ridiculous contract with Apple if we don't already. Have them help innovate the facility. I wouldn't mind a tremendous orange and blue Apple logo on the outside if they paid/provided enough. We have the connections we just need to use them. All of the big tech companies do a tremendous job at having innovative work spaces (see Google offices).

Auburn has proven we can be relevant even with average (Gus) to sub-par (Chizik) coaching. These facility wars may seem hokey to some but this is a big part of what separates Auburn from the recruiting elites. We're top 10 yes. But I want to be top 5, hell top 3, consistently in recruiting. Don't you?