University of Oregon's Hayward Field ready for international

Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR), Jun 25, 2008 by Sam Bennett

Bringing the 2008 U.S. Track and Field Olympic Trials to University of Oregon's Hayward Field seemed like a natural choice.

Eugene is known as Track Town, USA, and Hayward Field has been home to legendary UO runners such as Steve Prefontaine.

As a 1977 UO graduate, architect Robert Thompson jumped at the chance to redesign Hayward Field for the Olympic trials, which begin Friday.

Thompson, a principal with TVA Architects, said UO, the Oregon Track Club and Nike all wanted to "bring track and field back to its glory days and focus that around Hayward Field."

"We spent two and a half years getting the field back to a place where it can compete on a global level," said Thompson, who worked with Robert Curry, project manager at TVA, on the redesign of the field. "The Olympic trials are really the catalyst that enabled the university to bring this facility back."

The field had to be reconfigured, to allow concurrent Olympic sports events, such as pole vault, high, long and triple jumps, as well as discus and javelin. The field also received energy efficient lighting for evening events. In addition, the track was resurfaced, resulting in a Class I Track Certificate from the International Association of Athletics Federations. The field was regraded to improve surface drainage, 6,000 temporary seats were added and the grandstand and control booth were updated. The makeover was complete six weeks ago.

This weekend Hayward Field will host the U.S. Olympic trials for the first time since 1980. The field is already scheduled to be the site of the 2012 Olympic trials.

Thompson said he hopes that the redesigned field will help reestablish Eugene and UO as a mecca for track and field, and will also help bring the sport back to the prominence that existed in the days of Prefontaine.

In addition to bringing Hayward Field up to date, TVA Architects was hired to do master planning for the area around the field. The master plan includes a 9,500-seat indoor track facility and the relocation of four soccer fields. The firm also co-designed with Kansas City-based Ellerbe Becket the Oregon Arena for UO basketball, which begins construction this fall.

"We continue to do a lot of work for Nike," said Thompson. "We've just completed a significant master planning study for the next phase of the campus." TVA has also designed the largest day-care facility in Oregon at Nike, and is designing 250,000 square feet of off-site tenant improvement work for Nike.

Closer to Portland, excavation and shoring is ongoing for TVA's design of Park Avenue West, developed by Tom Moyer. The 32-story office building is designed to achieve LEED platinum certification.

For the Hayward Field project, McKenzie Commercial Contractors was the general contractor, Balzhiser & Hubbard Engineers handled civil engineering and electrical, and Larry Gilbert of CMGS was the landscape architect.