To remain competitive with today’s standards in Division I collegiate athletics, Texas A&M University needed a facility to provide protected space for practices and to house competitive events. Once a game plan had been developed, it was a race to the finish line as the design and construction team had only 24 months to complete the new McFerrin Athletic Center.
The center provides a building configuration that is optimally flexible to allow for an entire slate of Aggie sports, recreational uses and other university and community activities. Included are a 75,600-square-foot indoor football practice facility and a 115,400-square-foot multipurpose facility with an indoor track.
The football practice facility provides a clear-span enclosure of a yard-line-striped, regulation-size football field with a state-of-the-art synthetic turf system and goal posts at each end zone. It is air-conditioned and can provide a 10-degree temperature increase or decrease within 10 minutes. The same type of lights used at Olsen Field, replicating night football game conditions, provide interior lighting.
The Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium is the longest single-span tensile fabric structure (296 feet) in the United States and provides a complete NCAA-regulation track and field competition venue, offering seating and amenities for 4,000 fans. Its 100-foot peak means that pole vault and throwing events can be held indoors alongside sprint lanes.
Life F/X at Silo Point
