GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The people who planned and those now executing the $64.5 million renovation to the O'Connell Center swear the place will look completely different — and brand new — when the project is done.
It sure looks different in there now.
Interior demolition of the 36-year-old facility began in earnest Thursday, with heavy-equipment and cranes tearing out bleachers, walls and flooring, and dump trucks hauling away debris from the project slated to be completed in time for the start of the 2017 Southeastern Conference schedule in January.
"It's really exciting," said
Chip Howard, the University Athletic Association executive associate AD for internal affairs. "It's a culmination of 21 months since we had our first construction meeting. The design team and construction management firm has worked extremely hard, so its a big day to finally get underway with a very important and critical project for our university."
The O'Dome is being completely gutted from the surface level — "top to bottom," according to Brassfield & Gorrie project superintendent Josh Light — that ultimately will bring new seating (all chair backs), a club level for premium ticket-holders, new state-of-the-art audio and visual systems (including a center-hung scoreboard), new locker rooms, a full-round concourse level with new bathrooms and concession areas, plus a new grand entrance to the east side of the building.
"When we're done, it will look, smell and feel like a totally different arena," Light said. "Our goal is to get it done and make it something our community can be proud of and the university can use and get benefits from for generations to come."
Original renovation plans from that meeting in June 2014 targeted March 2015 as the starting point, but as that date drew closer both UAA and UF officials agreed to delay the project for a year to make sure it was done correctly.
The extra 12 months allowed Brassfield & Gorrie to commence with work on the exterior portions of the O'Dome and get something of a head start.
"It's been a blessing, really," Howard said of the decision to hold off a year. "We had an opportunity to go back and refine the design and look at [any issues] that could have come up and really got a better use of the time before the construction started. We were able to get some things done on the front end that would have been pinched if we'd done in on the original timeline."
With the project scheduled to carry into the start of the '16-17 basketball season, the Gators men's and women's teams will barnstorm around the state — likely at venues in Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa and South Florida — to play "home" games. The volleyball team will play its 2016 home games locally at an alternate venue.
