High School Stadium Design

Designing a Stadium with a Purpose

This is the final studio project I did in my fourth vertical studio with Cisco Gomes. We designed a football stadium in Marble Falls, Texas, along with several pieces of program. The site itself is on the edge of a river, with a steeply-sloping grade along the entirety of the site. I decided to design the site around the idea of approach. When I think back to my own personal experiences with high school football, the aspects I remember the most clearly is the approach and anticipation - hearing the sounds of the announcer grow louder, smelling the concession stands, seeing the lights get brighter, walking shoulder to shoulder with friends and strangers toward to the common goal of watching a game. With this in mind, I decided to create a single path from the top of the site to the bottom of the stands. The path goes through a series of architecturalized canyons, each canyon revealing a view towards and through the stadium. Halfway through the journey, there is an open-air hillside theatre that allows for flexible use during non-football days. The football field is raised one story above the surrounding boardwalk, allowing for classrooms, restrooms, locker rooms, and other program to tuck underneath the field.