Busy Building Summer on Purdue’s Campus

There is a lot going on facility-wise for Purdue this summer. It seems like all of the West Lafayette campus is under construction with State Street closed, the ongoing Performance Facility construction, and more. Here are some updates on the larger projects:

Ross-Ade Lights

The light towers are, indeed, on their way into the stadium! Work has been ongoing for some time, but it appears that the physical light structures will soon be going up. All told, there will be 15 light poles installed. Along the east side of the field above the seats there will be 11 poles to hold up ribbon lighting. Similar ribbon lighting will be installed along the top of the existing pavilion along a new 360-foot catwalk. The remaining four poles will be separate in the corners in a similar placement to the old temporary lights.

Here are some more details on the construction:

“This system will result in very even distribution of light down the entire length of the field,” said Steve Simmerman, senior associate athletics director for facilities.

All told, there will be 320 LED sports lighting fixtures, each one individually controllable via a DMX control system, which will allow for full remote adjustment options. There will be 140 diodes per fixture, for an approximate total of 45,000 diodes.

The lights will yield 320,000 total watts of power and more than 36 million lumens of light output.

The system should be in place by August 25^th, with plenty of leeway for the September 8 home opener. I will be driving through Lafayette this weekend so I will try to head over to campus and get some pictures.

Football Performance Facility

This project has been ongoing for some time and should also be completed in August. The athletic department has a target date of August 24, just one day ahead of the light installation. In their latest update crews were working on the following:

* Final finishing is underway on the third floor – painting, permanent ceilings and bulkheads – meaning all the overhead work like cabling and wiring is complete. The second floor will follow, then the first floor.

* Acoustic ceiling is being installed in the team meeting room.

* Restroom floors and walls are being tiled.

* The laundry room is being prepped for the installation of washers and dryer.

* Work also continues on the building’s exterior, and landscaping has begun on the south end of the Mollenkopf Athletic Center with prep work underway in the area between the new facility and the Bimel Practice Complex.

This means the new locker room will be ready for the coming season. For up to the minute updates you can even view construction via webcam.

Mackey Arena work

The football program is not the only one getting some needed updates ($70 million+ worth!) work is currently going on in Mackey Arena in preparation for the 50^th anniversary of the facility. It is not as extensive as the near 9 figure renovation completed earlier this decade, but over the summer a new center scoreboard and ribbon boards are being installed. Here is a very quick Sneak peek:

The final vision should look like this:

Officially, the 50^th anniversary will be December 2^nd, and it is very possible the Big Ten opener will be on that date. Why not have a banner raising that night for our most recent Big Ten championship?