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WATTS roof to be traditional
Photo
PROJECT MOVING AHEAD: Tony Hayek, left, an architect with MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown, explains two possible roof styles for the proposed WATTS indoor athletic-training facility at Youngstown State University to YSU Trustee John Jakubek.
The facility, housing a track and football field, is to be ready in August 2010.
By Harold Gwin
YOUNGSTOWN — The proposed WATTS indoor athletic-training facility at Youngstown State University will have a traditional, pre-engineered roof rather than an arched, vaulted roof that some found more aesthetically pleasing.
“This makes more sense for the sight footprint,” said Scott Schulick, chairman of the YSU Board of Trustees, after a meeting of the board’s finance and facilities committee.
The traditional angular roof has a lower profile than a vaulted roof, according to Tony Hayek, the project architect for MS consultants inc., the company selected by the trustees to design the facility, which will house a full-size football field and a 300-meter track in 120,000 square feet of space.
The location is near the northern end of campus along the Madison Avenue Expressway at Elm Street.
Hayek said it was his understanding that the university wants the facility to have as low a profile as possible because it will sit atop a hill above the freeway.
He brought a “study model,” complete with interchangeable roofs, for the trustees to review at the committee meeting.
A decision is needed on which roof will be used so that design work can be completed and steel for the structure can be pre-ordered before the project is put out for bid, Hayek said.
Plans call for construction bids to be awarded in February, construction to begin in March and the facility to open in August next year.
Several members of the board expressed interest in the vaulted roof, finding it more aesthetically appealing, but there were other issues to be considered as well.
First, the vaulted roof would cost more than the traditional style, Hayek said, pointing out the trustees would have to increase the $10 million project budget by $800,000 up front to pay for it. That roof would require a lot more steel and foundation work, he explained.
There is also a question of longevity.
The vaulted roof is made of a polymer material that would last about 20 years, while the pre-engineered roof is made of steel that would last considerably longer, Hayek said.
Trustee Harry Meshel, chairman of the finance and facilities committee, said he liked both designs.
“I can’t wait for it to be built,” he said.
The facility is named for former YSU head football coach Jim Tressel and his wife, Ellen, and her parents, Frank and Norma Watson, who pledged a total of $1 million in mid-2007 to get the project started.
The financing plan calls for $5 million to be covered through philanthropy and $5 million to come from money the university plans to borrow through the sale of bonds in early 2010 to finance this and other projects.
Some $3 million of the private funding has been raised.