To give Liberty a safe and top of the line stadium for their sports teams and bring it up to par with other schools in the district. Liberty is currently undergoing a stadium rebuild that will be completed next fall and will supposedly give the stadium a fishbowl layout.
Liberty received the bond for the construction project in 2011, and the stadium rebuild was necessary to make Liberty equitable to all of the other high schools in the district who were going under construction, and getting new AstroTurf, which was also necessary for Liberty and has improved sports practice drastically.
This rebuilding idea started around the time of the Liberty project, or construction grant, but was pushed back due to a lot of big contractors on site and having two projects.
The rebuild is going to be in the style of a horseshoe, where the stands will be surrounded by the amenities—bathrooms, concessions, water fountains etc. When it rains during football games, there will possibly be a covered place to walk, utilizing the space better and giving the stadium a look that is comparable to that of a college venue.
“Whether it’s for a track meet, or a soccer game, or a football game I am excited for everyone to get a better experience. I am excited for fans, opposing teams and the home team to have a better experience then they already do,” activity director Loren Krogstad said.
Bassetti Architects took over this project, with Mike Archer and Steve Crawford as the main leaders in this project. They started by replacing the turf and then putting in a number of other aspects into the blueprint such as new seats in the grandstand, realignment of the track, a new scoreboard and a new location for student seating.
“Coming to a final solution requires fitting together a number of spaces and budget limitations. As the area for the new construction is limited and fairly constricted by steep slopes and grades, fitting those pieces within the available space was a challenge. Access to the upper fields also needed to be maintained,” Crawford and Archer said.
Meetings with contractors and the school board were essential in creating this unique design, and figuring out how to utilize the space best.
“Programming and design committee meetings were held to develop the goals and functions that needed to be included in the construction. Later meetings went into more detail about how each space would be used and what furnishings or equipment was needed to support the programmed use,” Archer and Crawford said. “Bassetti Architects took that information and developed a number of floor plan options that were reviewed and modified to arrive at a solution that best incorporated the desired features and spaces.”
As far as sport practice interruptions go, there hasn’t been any for football. The stadium will be finished before track season as well, so track will have no interference with practice and meets.
“I am excited, but whether we have no stands or a new stadium, what makes Liberty special is the people in the stands,” football coach Steve Valach said.