Oklahoma State University Athletics
Gallagher-Iba Construction More Than Just Basketball Arena
March 27, 2000 | General
March 27, 2000
Now that basketball and wrestling seasons have come to an end, Gallagher-Iba Arena as we know it will never be the same again.
However, when the doors to the new Athletics Center open on Dec 1, 2000, OSU fans will see changes to not only Gallagher-Iba Arena, but also to the former Coaches Building and the former weight room/locker room building as well.
One of the biggest misconceptions regarding the construction on the new Athletics Center is that construction and renovation is being done only on the basketball arena.
However, when the construction is completed, three buildings will have become one, and existing Gallagher-Iba Arena will only constitute one-fourth of the new Athletics Center.
"When this Athletics Center is completed, there will be few like it in the country," said Don Allen, manager of Architecture and Engineering (A-E) Services.
The basement of the new Athletics Center will have several amenities intended to cater to OSU student-athletes.
The basement will house a state-of-the-art weight room to be used by all OSU student-athletes, and complete with new equipment. The weight room will be enclosed in glass walls and located in the center of the track, which will encircle the basement.
The basement will also contain locker rooms for the OSU spirit groups, public restrooms and elevator access to the first floor. Included in the basement, there will also be space for video operations.
"This facility is unique in that it will benefit all sports," said Gary Sparks, president and CEO of the Gary Sparks Companies and lead architect on the project. "There is 30,000 feet of space in the basement, which will cater to all student-athletes."
The first floor will not only contain the basketball arena floor and student seating, but several other aspects as well.
The southwest end of the Athletics Center will contain a new basketball practice gym that will be two stories high and will be placed in what used to be a parking lot located near the southwest end of existing Gallagher-Iba Arena.
To the west of the arena, sandwiched between the arena and the football stadium, a new academic center for athletes will be located. This center will house the offices for academic counselors, as well as a computer room and study area for student-athletes.
"The Academic Center makes the Athletics Center even more convenient to students," Sparks said. "It is one of the aspects of this facility that will allow student-athletes to go to one building to do a variety of things. Currently, they have to go to several."
New visitor locker rooms will also be located on the first floor next to the Academic Center, in the southwest area of the Athletics Center. These will be divided into sections to allow one, two or four teams to use them. The locker rooms were designed in this manner to allow for the scheduling of high school events in the Arena. These locker rooms will also be used for visiting collegiate wrestling, basketball or football teams.
Near the visiting locker rooms there will be a meeting area for the press. The room will be designed similar to that of a mini-theater to allow for press and postgame conferences. There will also be a satellite office for media relations and an area for camera operations set up in the back of the room.
The current training facility will move to an area that is currently being constructed between the former Coaches Building and the former weight room/locker room building. This area of the center will only be one story high, but will be intended to serve all OSU student-athletes.
Heritage Hall, a museum intended to encompass all aspects of the history of the university from academics to athletics will be located on the first floor of the center between what is currently the Coaches Building and Gallagher-Iba Arena. Items collected from all aspects of the university will be housed in the museum.
In the northwest corner of the center, new Cowboy football locker rooms are also being constructed. The new locker rooms will contain additional space to allow for team meetings to be held during halftime of games and after practices.
"The football locker rooms will contain partitions that will allow coaches to divide the offense and defense for instruction during halftime," Sparks said.
The first floor is already home to men's and women's basketball locker rooms and basketball coaches' locker rooms, both of which are completed and located on the west side of the arena. There are also completed locker rooms for game officials, which are located in the southeast corner of the first floor of the arena.
The main ticket office will be located in the north end of the Athletics Center on the first floor. All ticket operations for the athletics department will take place in this office. However, a phone center will remain at 1224 N. Boomer Rd, which is currently the temporary ticket office location.
The first floor will also house four concessions areas, four restrooms and safety and security offices, which will be located in various sections of the first floor.
The main entrance to the new Athletics Center will be located on the east side of the center. As visitors enter the center from the east side, a new gift store will be located in the lobby area. The lobby area will be three stories in height and will encompass most of the east side of the Athletics Center.
"The lobby is intended to accommodate a large crowd of people and to allow them to gather before and after events," Sparks said.
From the lobby, fans will take escalators to get to the concourse level, which unless they are sitting in the student section or in high-dollar courtside seats, is where they will go to get to their seats. However, fans may also use any one of four stairwells in the center of the arena to get to their seats on the concourse level.
"Before the start of the game the escalators will only go up, taking people to the concourse level and at the end of the game all of the escalators will only go down. This will help keep the flow of traffic moving," said Allen.
The second floor of the west side of the Athletics Center will house the football coach's offices, which will be overlook the football stadium.
Also located on the west side of the first floor will be a football recruiting lounge, which will overlook Lewis Field as well.
The second floor will also consist of nearly all of the administrative offices for the athletics department. These offices will be located in a square area around the outside of the arena, and will go all the way around the second floor.
A new wrestling practice area will also be located on the second floor in the northwest corner of the Athletics Center, directly above the football locker rooms.
"This may be the first time in OSU history that the wrestling squad will see the light of day during practice," said Allen. "They've always been in the basement of Gallagher-Iba Arena."
The third floor will be known as the concourse level. Escalators from the first floor will bring fans to this level. It is from this area that fans, other than those on the floor, will get to their seats.
Once on the concourse, level fans will have the option to take stairs, which will be located inside the Arena, either down to get to their seats on the lower level or up to get to seats in the upper balcony.
The concourse level will enable fans to walk all the way around the outside of the Arena to get to their seats. This will enable fans to take any stairwell and still be able to get to their seats without trouble.
There will also be four men's and four women's public restrooms, four concessions stands, and safety and security offices located on the concourse level.
"The concourse will be awesome," Sparks said. "It will rival a big-time arena. It is nearly 20 feet wide and can handle a huge number of people."
The fourth floor of the Athletics Center will consist of offices for men and women's basketball coaches and for wrestling coaches. These will be located in the west side of the center overlooking Lewis Field.
The fifth floor of the complex will consist of suites that are to be located directly above the wrestling and basketball coaches offices. These suites will allow those inside them to look onto both the basketball arena and onto Lewis Field.
"The thing about the building of this Athletics Center that is so unique when compared to other arenas in the Big 12 and across the nation, is that it allowed us to preserve a major part of OSU history," Sparks said. "The majority of original Gallagher-Iba Arena will still be intact when the construction is complete.
When the doors to the new Athletics Center reopen, students and fans can plan to see much more than they expected.
