Renovation: The Saga Continues

As the summer continues, so do the renovations to Houston Field House. We first chronicled in picture some of the construction underway back in mid-July. A few weeks later, we got another chance to go through and take a look at how far along the process has gotten on the inside. The natural lighting, for one, has improved dramatically, so some of these pictures are going to be a lot more clear than they were the last time.

Thanks again to John Crawford for the pictures.


Here, we can see that the front end has been fully opened up and now, and looks to be waiting for the glass to be put into place. The front circle in front of the Field House has been closed off to traffic, including the path over to Harkness Field, which at present is only accessible by going around behind the Field House near ECAV.




Much of the clutter behind the Field House is gone, a lot of it put back inside now. What's left is probably some stuff that's going to get tossed out. This row of ad space that hung beneath the catwalk was rarely, if ever, used for anything but the Rensselaer logo, and it's still sitting outside.


An assortment of other junk also sits behind the Field House. It looks as though they've done a pretty clean sweep of stuff that was either old, outdated, or superfluous.



As you can see, the interior of the Field House is done being painted, and the tarps have been removed from the seating sections and the rink surface. That has allowed for a lot of the stuff that was stored outside, including the Zambonis and the glass, to be moved back into the Field House. Notable in this picture is the lack of a stage on the eastern end, it has not been put back together yet. From what we're hearing, it doesn't look like there are any plans to have it raised higher above the glass when it is.

Also notable in this picture (which faces the press box and the north side) is the natural light coming in from the west.



The superstructure for the suites that are being constructed in Section 1's former location is coming along nicely and is better seen in this picture than we got last time. You can see generally what it's going to look like, now, nestled between Section 2 and Section 21.


The current state of the Field House viewed from Section 2. As you can see, the old scoreboard is back in place. According to what I've heard, it's either a mockup for the new scoreboard with video boards, or it will be used for one more season. The reason for the latter would be related to the sound system in the Field House, which is a little substandard to get good use out of the video boards, and there isn't enough time left before the season to get that taken care of. If that is the case, it may be pushed back to next year.


A look toward the concession area in the southwest corner of the Field House. It is being reconfigured to accommodate the entrance staircase to the suites.


Another look at the concession stand. I'm not quite sure exactly what the new configuration is going to be, but you can tell by the picture that they are putting something different in place.

A look down toward ice level from the stairs near Section 44. Still no curtain, obviously, and definitely some more work left to be done on this side.


The dasher borders are all that remains to separate the refrigeration surface from the area behind the eastern net area. Looks odd without the stage there.


Finally, a look at the goal horn on the ceiling offers a good look at the newly painted rafters. The lighting, while still using metal halide lamps, appears to also be a little different - at any rate, the lighting system was due to be replaced anyway. We'll have to see what it looks like with the lights on to be sure. The newly brilliant white ceiling will reflect that light better regardless.