Associate AD Warren Hood is Director of Athletics Ron Guenther's point man on the massive project. Hood has been working on plans for this undertaking for well over two years. He and Illinois officials took a number of exploratory trips to Ohio State and Purdue Universities, in addition to several other college and professional football stadiums that have been built and/or upgraded recently. They took what they felt were the best features and concepts at those venues and adapted them to the Illinois program and to Memorial Stadium; the result has been an intriguing design that is now taking shape, little by little.

"This is the largest renovation project that has ever been done, dollarwise, on this campus," Hood says (the price tag is expected to be in the neighborhood of $120 million).

It's a major endeavor, and the UI Division of Intercollegiate Athletics is blessed to have a first-class team with which to work.

"The University's facilities people have been great to work with," Hood asserted. "John Kaczmarek, our project manager, is doing a wonderful job. He has a vast amount of experience, not only at the University, but also in the private sector. He brings a lot to the table."

The UI's partners also contribute incredible talent, expertise and experience to Illinois Renaissance. The Hunt Construction Group, a national company, is managing the entire project with a team from its Indianapolis field office. Hunt, which is also working on the Indianapolis Colts' new stadium, has worked on many other recent sports facilities constructions, including the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Veterans' Stadium in Philadelphia and Miller Park in Milwaukee

"These projects are all unique," Brett Decker, Hunt's lead man in Champaign. "There's a lot of history here, and we're attempting to preserve it while adding the new facilities. We have had several challenges already, including keeping the work on schedule through the winter and re-routing some power lines we found under the north endzone area and under the West Great Hall."

Decker and his crew, which will be charged with managing seven "sub-projects" that comprise Illinois Renaissance, are currently working with two main construction firms, Grunloh out of Effingham, which is building the new north stands, and Williams Brothers from Peoria, which is handling the demolition and superstructure construction on the west side of the stadium.

The most pressing aspect of the whole assignment will be to have the north stands completed by the start of the 2007 football season, since those 5,000 close-to-the-field seats have already been designated and sold to UI students for the upcoming campaign. Decker and his staff have a countdown clock on the wall of their construction office trailer, just to remind them how many days, hours, minutes and seconds remain until the Illini tee it up against Western Illinois in the home opener Sept. 8.

"We'll work right through the football season," said Decker. "We'll be fencing off walkways for the home games, right through the middle of our staging area on the west side. The east side should be pretty much intact, and the scoreboard will be done on the south end."

"It's not ideal to play during construction," Hood admitted. " We talked with Ron Guenther about playing the games elsewhere in 2007, and that would have sped up the construction process quite a bit. It would have cost us a little less money in some ways, but moving out of the stadium for one year...we didn't know where we'd go. Chicago would be the only place that we could think of, and that wouldn't have worked out very well.

"We think we have a good plan for this season," Hood explained. "We do lose the West Balcony---we had hoped that we could have been able to use it, but about 6-7 months ago, we determined that we would have to take it out of service. We will have Rows 1-41 in the West Main stands in service--behind the entrances will not be available. We have had to move the people whose seats are in that area, as we have done with the patrons in the West Balcony in the last 3-4 months We'll still have a capacity of 55-56,000 people, which is significant, and we hope to have it sold out for all of our games."

Hood also praised the Illinois Athletics ticket office staff, under the direction of Jason Heggemeyer, for its efforts in relocating patrons.

"They've done a great job," he said. Jason has had to re-seat several arenas and stadiums at other universities where he has worked, and his experience has really paid off. We have had very few complaints during the process, and that's a testament not only to the work of his staff, but also to our fans, who see the big picture of what we're trying to accomplish. It's an emotional thing to sit in a given location at the stadium for perhaps 30-40 years, and then have to make a move. They have been so accommodating."

Recently two shifts have been working on Illinois Renaissance.

Decker gave a mid-April construction progress report, saying that the critical north end work is on schedule. The excavation work for the basement beneath the new stands is complete, and the foundation walls have been poured. Pre-cast concrete columns a beams will soon be delivered and put into place, then the concrete floors. A new weight room will occupy part of the space below those stands, but not all of the areas of those two levels have been designated yet. Design teams are still working on the plans for the interior, which will not be built out until the summer of 2008.

"Demolition is well underway on the west side," Decker said. "The floor of the West Great Hall is gone, the rest rooms are gone, and so are the ramps. We're now in the process of drilling 164 deep holes for foundation piers to support the new building that will house the pressbox, suites and new seating areas."

Most of the holes in the earth are about 75 feet deep. Each hole is filled immediately after drilling with reinforcing rods and concrete. This entire process should be complete by mid-May.

One of the more interesting challenges that crews have faced was determining how to get the drilling rigs into the Great West Hall.

"We didn't want to disrupt the historical façade on the west side of the stadium, so we removed a section of the lower west stands to expose an entry way from the field side," Decker said.

Drilling rigs were driven up this makeshift "ramp" into the Great West Hall, so the stadium's west facade would not have to be disturbed.

A sand/gravel mixture was brought in and laid directly over the treads and risers leading up to the opening, and the rigs were driven in from field level.

The most visible elements of the project have to be the two tower cranes, the bases for which sit just outside the stadium's west wall. Thirty-foot pilings and huge concrete masses had to be installed first to accommodate the 180-foot and 230-foot rigs.

Less visible right now is the work in the horseshoe area, where supports are now going up for the scoreboard, which was removed from the north end and will soon be reassembled and mounted at the south end of Zuppke Field. The trick here is to maintain access for athletic department personnel through that tunnel area to the playing field.

The trick for Hood and his development team is to foresee possible problems and to stay ahead of the construction process.

"Only two of the seven projects within the scope of Illinois Renaissance have been bid out at this time," Hood said. So there is constant planning going on. Recently, for example, some of us went through and determined exactly what signage will be needed in every aisle and entryway into the north stands. We had to make sure each sign will say the right thing and be mounted in the right place. We will eventually have to do that for the west side as well.

"There's never a dull moment. We have also been working closely with the football, facilities maintenance and Varsity Room (training table) staffs, all of which are housed at the stadium. We have needed to make sure that the football team has had field access when necessary during spring practice; and we've had to make sure everything will be ready for the spring game, including setting up an area for the news media to work, since the pressbox is not accessible now.

"And as we get closer to the season, we'll have to have things worked out for those who will still be sitting on the west side," Hood continued. "Temporary rest rooms and concession stands that have to be in place. The construction crews will be working through Thursdays of home-game weeks so we can prepare on Fridays. They may end up working on Sundays instead of Fridays."

Decker may have said it best, and very succinctly. "We're going to have our hands full."

Here's hoping Memorial Stadium will be full as well, this fall. At least as full as the construction process will allow.