FALCON
CENTER FACTS “We started the first phase of the project on July
25, 2014, which included artificial turf on the football
stadium field. We held our first game on the new field
on October 4, 2014,” Thum said. “Less than three
months.”
The overall project was: MULTI-TASKING TO SUCCESS
• The largest in the history of the University of
Wisconsin-River Falls
• In the planning stages for more than 20 years
• Funded with state dollars, student fees, and donations
• A three-year construction effort that affected nearly
every athletic program at the university
The building design included:
• 2,500-seat basketball arena
• 12,000-square-foot auxiliary gymnasium
• 15 new team locker rooms
• 10,000 square feet of new athletic department offices
• 3,000 square feet of classrooms
• An active-learning classroom and a 2,800-square-foot
health and human performance lab
• 9,000 square feet of fitness, strength, and cardio
training areas
• Indoor rock and boulder climbing walls
• Food concessions area and a catering kitchen capable
of serving large special events
Athletic field site work included:
• An artificial turf football field and drainage base system
• An irrigated varsity soccer field with seating for 400
spectators
• Varsity track and field event venues
• A practice field to accommodate multiple events
• A varsity softball field with seating for 400 spectators
Other site work included:
• 720-stall parking lot and 30-stall parking lot adjacent to
the building, including accommodations for pay station
shelters, bus circulation, and service and delivery
needs
• Two access driveways and a service driveway
• Sanitary sewer and water main extensions and service
• Stormwater collection system and stormwater
treatment, including bioswales in the parking lot
• Landscaping, including screening of adjacent
residential areas
• Traffic study to identify access and egress routes and
circulation patterns
• Evaluation of pedestrian circulation patterns
8│ TRENDS
What made scheduling more complex was that so
many activities had to be completed at the same time
to keep the overall project moving forward as planned:
construct a new driveway to connect the project
site to a City street, begin parking lot construction,
install underground utilities in the athletic field areas,
prepare a building pad and site work for maintenance
and storage buildings.
The second phase of construction began in
September 2014.
“The challenge of the Phase 2 site construction was
complicated by the requirement to get users and
visitors to existing venues (areas of the facility) that
were required to remain operational throughout the
construction,” Thum said. “The site work and the
building construction were equally complex in that
we always had to provide users of the space access to
the facilities but still be able to make progress in the
construction.”
The new addition would literally wrap portions
of existing facilities, requiring removal of walls and
intense interior remodeling. One area, Smith Stadium,
had to be available during the football season. Another
area, Hunt Arena, had to be available for hockey
practice and games. Knowles Fieldhouse had to be
available for indoor track meets and physical education
classes.
There were times, remembers UW-RF Campus
Planner Dale Braun, when activity on site made
him a little nervous. For example, the contractor –
Miron Construction – removed the east wall of the
Hunt Arena ice arena to allow for remodeling and
construction just four months before the start of the
hockey season.
“I thought, ‘Oh man. What if something goes wrong
and delays this project? This is our only ice.’ But they
did it,” Braun said. “They finished that arena in time to
accommodate the hockey team practices.”
The second portion of the project had seven
construction phases, Braun said, and timing was
everything. “We took it a piece at a time so we could
literally wrap the old buildings with the new one,” he
said. “It was day by day – and it worked.”