Ellerbe Becket designed the new 38,500-seat Rentschler Field in East Hartford to help propel the UConn football program into Division I-A prominence. The designers did their part and the Huskies obliged with a 34-10 debut win over established Big Ten foe Indiana.
“By the time fans left Rentschler Field, they were giddy,” wrote Paul Doyle in the Hartford Courant. Doyle interviewed fans attending the game, including Dan Lamothe of Middletown, Conn. “What a great, great day,” said Lamothe. “A historic day. This is the best thing to happen to this area, it really is.”
Courant Writer Ken Davis interviewed the Ellerbe Becket design team for a special section commemorating the stadium debut. Portions of the interviews follow.
“I challenged the whole design team to create a unique image, so that any time people saw it on TV or in pictures, it would be very recognized as Rentschler Field and home of Uconn football,” said Gordon Wood, Ellerbe Becket’s principal in charge.
Ellerbe’s Brandon Liebst was so excited during his first trip to Rentschler Field, he grabbed a phone and called his mother. “This is the first project I’ve seen from a drawing on paper to going out there (to the site),” Liebst said. “I can walk on it, stand on it and touch it. It’s extremely satisfying.”
Project Manager Dan Sullivan explained the design concept this way: “If you go to a baseball stadium and you’re in the back of the lower deck, you can usually see all the way around. That’s usually not done in football stadiums. One of the things we’ve done is raise the upper deck of seating above the concourse. You’ll be able to stand anywhere on the concourse and be able to see down to the field and across the field.”
Project Architect Phil Dougherty has been traveling to East Hartford every other week since October 2001. He’s made 51 trips in the last two years. “My kids don’t exactly understand everything I’m doing when I have to travel,” Dougherty said. After he brings them to see the completed stadium, Dougherty said he hopes his children say, “Daddy, what’s the next stadium?”
Sullivan summed it up best. “I saw a lot of smiles and a lot of eagerness on the faces of people as they walked through. That’s what I love about architecture, and sports architecture specifically. These are great facilities.”
For more information on Rentschler Field, including 360-degree virtual tours, see www.rentschlerfield.com.
An innovator since its founding in 1909, Ellerbe Becket is a leader in architecture, engineering and the construction industry with office locations worldwide.
Contact: news@ellerbebecket.com
