Joan C. Edwards Stadium (Huntington, West Virginia)

 american football stadium, 1991_construction

Current use: Football Stadium, also called James F.Edwards Field .
Location: 3rd. Avenue and 20th. Street, eastern end of campus.
Designers: Stafford Rosser / Fabrap International, from Princeton, W.V.
Completed: 1991
Name: For James F. Edwards, a well known bene-factor.

This 30,000-seat stadium has an artificial playing surface of 53,147 square feet. On the east side of the stadium is a 129,000 square foot grass practice field. The Western side has a huge steel structure alternated with tall masonry towers which houses elevators, staircases and a covered superstructure with luxury boxes, coaches' boxes, a working press area, and a Big Green meeting room.

This part stands out because it is the main entrance and for its strong, resolute structural expression. The high red brick towers at each side and the central walled volume are prominent and have behind a white rendered superstructure that is supported by steel columns, leaving a free ground floor. The scale of the building was rendered according to its dimensions, as it is the most extensive facility at MU Campus. The intercrossing of tall, cylindrical or prismatic walled volumes that interacts with wide, horizontal boxes supported by thin steel columns are a common way of composition in buildings of this scale.

The use of color helps to manage the grade of mass expression. Brown colored vertical structures appears to weigh much more than white, mainly horizontal masses. This way of designing great-scale buildings is a direct influence of factory design, as developed in the beginnings of the 20th Century.

The Facilities Building, adjacent to the north end of the stadium, is a two-story masonry building and was constructed in 1992. This building houses the offices of the athletic director, assistant athletic director, head football coach, assistant football coaches, and additional athletic personnel. This building also houses a home team dressing room, visitor's team dressing room, exercise and weight room, equipment room, meeting rooms, serving kitchen, and a sports training room. Numerous change orders were issued for the project. The project started in 1990 and was completed in 1992.
Designers: Stafford Rosser/Fabrap International, of Princeton, W.Va., same team as the MU Stadium.