Marquette University Athletics
Marquette Names Architect For Al McGuire Center
6/21/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
June 21, 2001
Milwaukee -- NBBJ Sports and Entertainment, internationally recognized as a prominent leader in the planning and design of innovative sports venues, has been chosen to design the Al McGuire Center which will be located at a site on the Marquette campus.
The Al McGuire Center will provide state-of-the-art facilities for men's and women's basketball, including an academic center for student-athletes, strength and conditioning and sports medicine facilities, and the Marquette athletics hall of fame.
"We have chosen a firm with a national reputation for excellence in design work, particularly related to athletic facilites," said Marquette University President Robert A. Wild. "It's a challenging task they have. We do want a special building that will make anyone who has known Coach McGuire proud. We anticipate that we will get a building that will enhance not simply our athletic program, but architecturally will enhance this campus as a whole."
NBBJ is the second-largest architectural firm in the United States, fifth largest in the world with offices located in Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Columbus, Ohio, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina and New York. NBBJ has been providing architecture, design and planning services to a wide-range of public and private sector clients for more than 55 years.
Committed to creating exemplary sports facilities that also make a significant cultural and architectural contribution to the communities they serve, NBBJ delivers projects that reach beyond the traditional architectural solution. The firm's focus on design excellence, combined with a creative approach to sports facility design, has led to enormous success of projects such as Milwaukee's own Miller Park, home to the Milwaukee Brewers, Xavier University's Cintas Center, the NFL's new Paul Brown Stadium and The Staples Center, home of the NBA World Champion Los Angeles Lakers.
"There are a number of things that are very interesting about this assignment for us and we are excited about it," said Ron Turner, who will serve as Principal-In-Charge for the Al McGuire Center. "We don't go after every project in the country. We look for special opportunities, and when this one happened in this city, and when the great Al McGuire put his name on the building, we said that this was a very special building for us to go after. We think, and we hope, to be able to create something that is going to be very special for this campus.
"We want student-athletes to be inspired when they come into this building and we want everyone to be inspired. We have a great vision for the hall of the fame honoring Al McGuire and we want that to be something that is inspirational to all students on this campus and all alumni that have attended over the years. We look forward to this opportunity and can't wait to get started drawing."
Representing NBBJ at the press conference held on the Marquette campus were:
RON TURNER -- AIA - Principal Recognized as one of the profession's leaders, Ron Turner began his career in the specialty practice of sports facility design in the early 1970s with the renovation of Yankee Stadium. In 1995, recognizing the industry evolution from merely sports focused to entertainment focus facilities, Ron became a founding Principal in the Los Angeles-based practice of NBBJ Sports & Entertainment.
Over the past 25 years, Ron has led design teams for such prestigious projects as the Olympic Stadium and Turner Field in Atlanta, Miller Park in Milwaukee, Madison Square Garden in New York, Staples Center in Los Angeles and the Cintas Center in Cincinnati. Ron has also served as a design consultant for the NBA the past 15 years and authored the current standards for new facility design.
Ron will bring his years of experience representing NBBJ as Principal-in-Charge for the Al McGuire Center.
TAD SCHULTZ - Project Director Tad Schultz is a Senior Designer with NBBJ, responsible for the conceptual, functional and detailed design of sports projects. He has design experience with NFL stadia, major league ballparks, minor league and collegiate venues with an emphasis on architectural design and urban planning. With an innovative and energetic design influence, Tad has established himself as a designer committed to the evolution of sports architecture. Some of the projects Tad has led the design for include the New Mile High Stadium for the NFL Denver Broncos, the Lambeau Field Expansion Study for the NFL Green Bay Packers, the Oakland Arena for the NBA Golden State Warriors, and the Arena Study and Facilities Masterplan at the University of Kentucky.
Tad will bring his design expertise to the Al McGuire Center, representing NBBJ as Project Director.
