company_news 2008-12-01T23:57:56Z <p>Waco, TX - Baylor University will open their doors to the $34 million Alwin O. and Dorothy Highers Athletics Complex and the Simpson Athletics and Academic Center. The grand opening of the 96,500 square foot facility will be held on Friday, December 12. The facility was designed by Crafton Tull Sparks and constructed by The Beck Group, partnering to deliver this design-build project. The project utilized a fast-track system for design and construction and is currently pursuing LEED&reg; certification.</p> <p>All football operations and the athletic department offices, will relocate to the Highers Athletics Complex, which is in the heart of Baylor&rsquo;s campus. A new academic center will also be housed in the new facility. For the first time in modern era, Baylor will have its football operations located on its campus. The athletics center also includes a new football locker room, strength and conditioning area, sports medicine, equipment room, hydrotherapy area, team meeting facilities, football staff offices, and two outdoor, adjacent football practice fields.</p> <p>The Academic Center will serve all athletes attending Baylor, with the hopes of making both athletic and academic endeavors successful. The new facilities are all state-of-the-art and are geared towards Baylor athletes, while at the same time seamlessly blending with existing campus architecture and building materials to create a central highlight of the campus athletics quadrant.</p> <p>The sports division of Crafton Tull Sparks specializes in sports projects. Previous work by this firm includes Oklahoma State University&rsquo;s Boone Pickens Stadium and the University of Oklahoma&rsquo;s Student Aquatics, Fitness and Recreation Center. The firm has 335 employees with offices in Conway, AR, Little Rock, AR, Oklahoma City, OK, Rogers, AR, Russellville, AR, Tulsa, OK and Wichita, KS. Founded in 1963, they provide architectural, engineering, interior design, landscape architecture, planning and surveying services across the nation.</p> <p align="left"><a href="../../../assets/0000/0898/Baylor_grand_opening.pdf">View press release</a></p> 63 baylor-university-opens-facility-63 2008-12-02T00:00:00Z New Athletics & Academic Center 2008-12-02T14:40:49Z 1