HNTB To Work On Football Stadiums At Univ. Of Michigan, Cal

By Don Muret, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

HNTB has been awarded the contract to design improvements to Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, and sources say the firm has also won the contract for work at Memorial Stadium at the Univ. of California-Berkeley. The Univ. of Michigan proposed a $165.6M renovation of college football's largest facility that would add 79 suites, 2,000 outdoor club seats, 1,000 indoor club seats, 1,200 regular bench seats and 168 spaces for disabled patrons and their companions. The school's architect estimates that 5,632 seats would be gained in the renovation, which would increase capacity to 113,133 if no seats were displaced by new construction, which the RFP did not address. The Cal project could cost $150-180M. The plan is to build a major structural upgrade to support the stadium, which straddles the Hayward Fault, one of the most active seismic zones in the world. Bleacher seats would be replaced with wider accommodations, concourses would be expanded, rest rooms added and concession areas improved.