The multipurpose Ryan Fieldhouse and Walter Athletics Center, a 420,000-square-foot building in Evanston, Illinois, will serve as the practice facility for the university’s football, basketball and soccer teams. It houses a full-sized football practice field, two sports performance facilities, three basketball courts, locker rooms and offices for the university athletic department.
“This facility provides a new indoor sports training facility for the Northwestern football and other athletic teams and activities,” said Randy Herbstman, project manager for WSP USA. “It will serve as an event space for the university, and as a recruiting tool for all sports teams to demonstrate Northwestern’s commitment to providing first-class facilities to its students.”
WSP worked with Perkins + Will, the lead architect, to provide the structural engineering, design and construction administration services on behalf of Northwestern University. Design of the facility began in April 2014, and construction started in January 2016. Although Wilson Field was opened for practices by the Wildcats football team last December, construction of the remainder of the facility continued through this month.
“WSP delivered an efficient and unique design that met the aesthetic goals and requirements of the architect,” Herbstman said. “We provided a lot of coordination services and assisted the rest of the design and construction team to meet the very fast construction schedule.”