Opposites attract: Superdome, Rose Bowl

TROJAN TD: USC beat UCLA, its arch rival, 19-13 at Rose Bowl Stadium on Nov. 23. The historic venue will keep its historic look after an $80 million renovation is completed. (Getty Images) 

Rose Bowl Stadium and Caesars Superdome couldn’t be more different in terms of design, but for Gensler, the architect responsible for renovating both venues, the indoor NFL stadium served as a model for a college football facility twice its age.

The Superdome opened in 1975, more than 50 years after Rose Bowl Stadium debuted in 1922.

Both stadiums are historical in their own right and have local commissions overseeing upgrades to ensure their structural integrity remains intact in New Orleans, Louisiana and Pasadena, California.

In that respect, Gensler leaned on the restrictions in place for the $560 million rejuvenation of the Superdome during the design process for retrofitting Rose Bowl Stadium.

In Pasadena, the $80 million in upgrades over the next five years are highlighted by a field level club behind the south end zone, new loge boxes along the west sideline and a new videoboard stretching across the north end zone that will be the fourth-biggest screen in college football, said Don Williams, a senior associate for the firm and project designer

“In New Orleans, we had a lot of input on the dome and we knew the form of it couldn’t change with the historical commission there,” Williams said. “There was some latitude on some seating bowl changes they let us have, but as far as the shape and overall form of the building, you couldn’t touch it, which is the same thing here in Pasadena. We have to respect the existing shape of the building and make whatever improvements work within that constraint.”

At Rose Bowl Stadium, part of the overall project focuses on replacement of all seats along the east and west sidelines, effectively creating more legroom and comfort with bigger tread depths.

The result is the loss of about 17,000 seats, Williams said, dropping stadium capacity from roughly 89,000 to 72,000. Officials with the Rose Bowl Operating Company, the nonprofit that runs the stadium, and UCLA, their primary tenant, were fine with that assessment, according to Williams, knowing that the Bruins typically draw in the neighborhood of 40,000 to 50,000 for home games.

“That’s very much in everybody’s thinking, that it would right-size the venue for UCLA,” he said. “There’s very few events that have that high of a demand” to fill close to 90,000 seats.

As part of the seat reduction, the new loge boxes on the west side will take up the first five rows of the seating bowl beneath the suite tower added a decade ago that’s part of the Terry Donahue Pavilion.

The 1,100 loge box seats, designed in groups of four to six seats with large cushy chairs and a side table, coupled with the new 1,000-person field level club, gives the stadium and UCLA a pair of new premium products to sell for events to generate incremental revenue in addition to the suites and club seats already in place.

The field level club was something stadium officials desired, Williams said. After completing several studies on premium seat options in general, the south end zone club resonated with several stakeholders. UCLA liked the concept of bringing the players through the club lounge and their fan base, which would have access to postgame interviews in that end of the stadium, which is similar to NFL venues.

The new club could be used for the Rose Bowl Game and soccer matches as well.

“We had to maintain the exact footprint of the stands, and the club has to (fit in) that footprint, so we keep the historical accuracy throughout the stadium,” Williams said. “That was a big hindrance to the overall design, but it was something important to the city of Pasadena and the Rose Bowl, to keep that historical tradition moving forward.”

To add the bigger videoboard, Gensler had to work with local historic preservation groups to ensure that it wouldn’t block fans’ view of the San Gabriel Mountains, while adhering to the structural integrity guidelines. That meant having to attach the board to a separate steel system that cantilevers over the first 10 rows seats on the north end, which will be removed due to the overhang.

“We could not attach the board itself to the stadium because historical commission wants to be able to say that they could take it back to its original form if they needed to,” Williams said.

The same was true for the existing videoboard in the north end, which was installed as part of the previous renovations over the past 10 to 15 years.

“The new board will bring a huge dynamic to the stadium that it doesn’t have now,” Williams said.