Anderson Family Football Complex
The football complex is being built adjacent to Memorial Stadium but will not interfere with the KU graduation tradition of walking down Campanile Hill to the stadium. The building will include offices, academic areas, a weight room, locker rooms, an audio-visual room, meeting rooms, a cardio room, a hydro-therapy room, a nutrition area and a display area. The stand-alone, 80,000 square-foot football facility will be the state-of-the-art centerpiece of a $31 million football complex project, which also includes construction of the two practice fields and additional parking. The football facility will consist of two levels, with only the upper level above ground. The lower, underground level will house the football training area, locker rooms, and related facilities. The upper level will house athletics administrative offices and support services. The two 100-yard practice fields will be located southeast of the stadium, between it and the Kansas Union, on a site that is currently part of existing asphalt parking lots (yellow-permit lots Nos. 92, 93, and 91). HNTB Architecture of Kansas City, Mo., produced the architectural program outlining space needs and estimated costs, for review by the Regents and the legislature's Joint Committee for Building Construction. After that, plans and specifications were drawn for construction. HNTB worked closely with the university building committee to develop and select the design and site for the project. Turner Construction Company of Kansas City, Mo., was selected to be the General Contractor charged with constructing the building, practice fields and modifying the site to fit such facilities. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Anderson Family Football Complex was held October 6, 2006, at Memorial Stadium. The following day, at halftime of the KU-Texas A&M football game, the field in Memorial Stadium was named Kivisto Field. Funding for the $31-million Anderson Family Football Complex was provided largely through the generosity of two University of Kansas alumni families - the Kivistos (former basketball team captain Tom Kivisto and his wife Julie), and the Andersons (Dana, Sue, Justin and Jean) - as well as several other families, including Charles and Sharon Lynch Kimbell (Hutchinson, Kansas), Frank Sabatini and family (Topeka, Kansas), and Ken Wagnon (Wichita, Kansas). A native of the Chicago area, Kivisto was a three-year starter for KU's basketball team (1971-72 through 1973-74), and averaged 7.6 points per game for the Jayhawks' 1974 Final Four team. He earned academic All-American, All-Big Eight and academic All-Big Eight honors at KU, and is a member of the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame. He earned a bachelor's degree from KU, majoring in pre-med and psychology. His master's work, also at KU, was in urban planning. Kivisto has served as president and chief executive officer of SemGroup, L.P., located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, since helping establish the midstream energy service company in April 2000. Kansas graduates Dana and Sue Anderson have been a consistent piece in the advancement of Kansas Athletics. Their generous contributions have enhanced and upgraded many KU facilities that have, in turn, positively impacted the lives of thousands of KU student-athletes. A 1959 KU business graduate, Dana receive the University of Kansas Alumni Association's Fred Ellsworth Medallion in 1998, one of the highest honors bestowed by the University. In 1996, the Anderson family pledged $10.5 million, most of which established the Anderson Family Athletics Building Fund. The family's contributions have benefited the Wagnon Student Center and the new baseball stadium, as well as the volleyball, basketball and rowing teams. The Anderson's generosity also has benefited the KU Libraries' Kansas Collection and the KU School of Business. In August 2001, the Anderson family pledged $8 million toward the Anderson Family Strength and Conditioning Center, a 25,000-square-foot facility that opened in 2003. In February 2006, the Andersons pledged $12 million toward the Anderson Family Football Complex. Dana is vice chairman of MaceRich Co., where he has worked since 1966. At KU, he has served on the boards of Kansas Athletics, Inc., the Endowment Association, the Alumni Association, the School of Business and KU Libraries, and has helped strengthen numerous projects on campus. To recover the displaced parking spaces, plans call for paving an existing surface parking lot, and adding three additional surface lots on the west side of the stadium. Design work on the parking expansion was completed by December 2006, and construction began in spring 2007. Work on the practice fields and football facility started in spring 2007 and will be completed by summer 2008. The university has appointed an Ad Hoc Community Advisory Committee to advise the university on the practice field and parking lot expansion projects, both of which are within 150 feet of the university's perimeter. Because the practice fields fall within 500 feet of the historic environs of the Hancock District and Snow residence, the practice fields project will be reviewed by the university's Campus Historic Preservation Board and then by the Lawrence Historic Resources Commission, consistent with the University's historic preservation agreement with the City. A KU building committee has worked with HNTB Architecture on the football facility building design. Members of the football facility building committee are Warren Corman, university architect; Jim Modig, director, KU Design Construction and Management; Mark Reiske, associate director, Design Construction and Management; Sean Lester, associate athletics director; Brad Nachtigal, assistant athletics director for facilities planning; Bill Dickerson, assistant athletics director for operations and events; George Matsakis, director, Football Operations; and architects from HNTB, led by KU alumni Marty Haynes, Gerardo Prado and Phil Dougherty. |
In February 2006, the Kansas Board of Regents granted the University of Kansas permission to name a planned football facility near Memorial Stadium the Anderson Family Football Complex. In addition, the university announced it would name the field inside the stadium Kivisto Field.
