Hoop Dreams

University of Virginia Aims to Make New Arena a Slam-Dunk forBasketball and the Bottom Line

Anyone who doubts the importance of college basketball's "sixth man" has probably never attended a game at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

By Jim Parsons

The enthusiasm of students, fans and alumni has long propelled Cavalier men's and women's teams to the heights of the basketball-obsessed Atlantic Coast Conference, making upsets of top-ranked opponents almost as routine as post-season tournament berths.

Enthusiasm alone can carry a basketball program only so far, however. With several ACC rivals joining the trend toward building financially lucrative multipurpose on-campus arenas, Virginia's 8,400-seat University Hall was left as the league's smallest venue. And its 1960s-era in-the-round seating configuration was ill suited to the needs of 21st Century intercollegiate athletics and other special events.

That dubious distinction will soon be a memory with the construction of the John Paul Jones Arena, a privately funded $130 million facility that promises to enhance Virginia's home-court advantage in more than just basketball.

One of the major donors for the project is Paul Tudor Junes II. As part of his donation, he asked that the area be named for his father, John Paul Jones. Both are Virginia graduates.

Scheduled for completion in summer 2006, the 366,000-sq.-ft. complex will include a 15,000-seat basketball arena with 20 suites that offer premium seating; training and weight rooms; locker rooms and offices for the men's and women's teams; and 2.5 practice courts. An adjacent four-level, 250,000-sq.-ft. precast concrete parking structure will provide parking for 900 vehicles, augmenting a new 600-space surface lot.

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"The arena will have all the 'wow' factors recruits and fans look for," said Richard Laurance, the university's project director.

"With the largest indoor venue in the state, we can attract a wider range of major concerts, shows and special events. The project also adds a long-needed connector road to the university's north entrance and a central utility plant that will support future development in this area."

Winning points

Unlike the clamshell dome of University Hall, the new arena is more in keeping with the school's architectural style defined by Thomas Jefferson in the early 1800s. The brick-clad structure's curved main entrance features 26 columns with pergolas, a distinctive element found throughout Jefferson's "academical village," including the recently expanded football stadium.

Inside, the arena's U-shaped bowl echoes the layout of the university's centerpiece Rotunda and Lawn, with the "open side" above the endzone student bleachers punctuated by a Jeffersonian-inspired motif of brick piers and white concrete beams.

"This is the first collegiate arena to follow the Camden Yards approach and make the venue distinctive to its location," said Bob Moje, project manager of lead design firm VMDO Architects of Charlottesville. "You will have a strong sense of place whether you're watching the game in the arena or on TV."

Other features of John Paul Jones Arena will help set it apart. Fans accessing the suites and premium seating areas will use a secondary concourse located below the main concourse, a departure from the circulation plan used in comparable facilities. "This helps enhance the exclusivity of the suites and gets those fans closer to the court," Moje said.

Other Cavalier fans will find plenty to like about the arena, too. "The first 12,000 seats will be as good as or better than any location in University Hall - closer to the court and with better sightlines," Laurance said. "That kind of tight, intimate environment is essential in a highly competitive league like the ACC. Game days are going to be quite special here."

In the zone

Keeping the multifaceted arena project on schedule has meant jumping through some hoops for the construction team led by construction manager Barton Malow of Southfield, Mich.

On one hand, the inherent drainage characteristics of the underlying geology kept sitework largely free from problems associated with the region's above-average rainfall in 2003. But every benefit has a trade-off.

Fully excavating 175,000 cu. yds. of soil and rock from the site required some rock blasting, an option the university was understandably concerned about using with both a child-care center and student apartments located just 500 ft. away.

"That meant working with the university and the neighbors to develop a blasting and monitoring plan that addressed everyone's concerns," said Barton Malow project manager Kevin McMichael. "Fortunately, our surveys showed that the weathered rock would fracture easily. That allowed us to drill deeper with more overburden, resulting in fewer blasts with smaller charges."

In fact, the three small blasting events in summer 2003 drew little notice from anyone outside the construction site. "They were nonevents, just the way we wanted it," McMichael added.

Because some portions of the site did not meet the 7,000-psf bearing requirement for the arena foundation, a series of 1,028 geopiers were installed to help stabilize the soil. Compacting various grades of stone within each pier proved more cost-effective than undercutting and adding structural fill.

The approach also set the stage for installation of the arena's first cast-in-place floor slabs and support columns to get under way ahead of a winter building season that would include several snowfalls and extended periods of subfreezing temperatures.

The advent of spring brought renewed confidence that the precast and steel erection phases would proceed on schedule.

"There is so much excitement surrounding this project that you can image what it was like when people see something actually rising from the ground," Laurance said. "I think the milestone everyone is anticipating is October, when we begin installing the five 160- to 180-ton roof trusses."

A sound gameplan

The arena's steel and concrete skeleton is not the only thing attracting attention in Charlottesville these days. Complex, privately financed projects are a rarity among Virginia's public colleges and universities. And with fundraising efforts for the John Paul Jones Arena ongoing, keeping the project within budget has required teamwork.

"The value-engineering effort for the arena has been a tremendous success," Laurance said. "We were able to save more than $70 million and still achieve every project goal and objective set by the university's Board of Visitors."

Laurance added that the arena's true "MVP" may prove to be not a person, but a process. "Agency construction management is a must for a large complex project such as this," he said. "The improved communication gives you a better handle on what's happening in the field, and what your real costs are. When you're working with talented people, it's the only way to get the project completed on time and within budget."

Team Box

Owner: University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tenant: University of Virginia Cavaliers
Project Management: University of Virginia Facilities Management, Charlottesville
Architect of Record: VMDO Architects PC, Charlottesville
Sports Design Consultant: Ellerbe Becket, Kansas City, Mo.
Engineering: Ellerbe Becket, Kansas City, Mo.
Architectural Consultant: Rich & Associates Inc., Southfield, Mich.
Civil Engineer: Patton Harris Rust & Associates, PC, Bridgewater, Va.
Stormwater Master Planning: Judith Nitsch & Associates, Boston.
Construction Manager: Barton Malow Co., Southfield, Mich.
Cast-in-Place Contractor: Cleveland Cement, Richmond, Va.
Precast Contractor: Shockey Precast Group, Winchester Va.
Earthwork: Faulconer Construction Co. Inc., Charlottesville
Steel Fabrication: Hirschfeld Steel Co., San Angelo, Texas