Notre Dame will undertake the "largest building project in its 172-year history" with a 750,000-square foot, $400 million renovation project to Notre Dame Stadium, the school announced Wednesday.
The project will attach three buildings to Notre Dame Stadium, one each on the east, west and south sides of the stadium. On the west side, the Irish will construct a building for student life services, including a "space for student organizations, a recreation center and a career center." On the east side, Notre Dame will build new housing for the anthropology and psychology departments and a digital media center, and the south side will hold the Department of Music and the Sacred Music at Notre Dame program.
Inside the stadium, the new construction will add between 3,000 and 4,000 club seats.
Ultimately, Notre Dame wants to obtain more functionality out of a structure that occupies a large chunk of real estate yet is only in use 10-to-12 days a year.
“At a time when so many would call into question the viability of the collegiate sports model in America, it is fitting that Notre Dame, a perennial leader in the measures of academic performance by student-athletes, offers a bold vision providing emphatic evidence that the full integration of athletics into the academic mission of a university is not only possible but desirable," athletics director Jack Swarbrick said in the school's official statement. “Coach Brian Kelly and I are thrilled that one of the most famous sports venues in the world will now also be known as one of the most innovative educational facilities.”
The 83-year old Notre Dame Stadium is, famously, one of the select few college football venues that still resembles the era from which it was built. It does not have a video screen and features no commercial advertising. Notre Dame revealed Wednesday that it would explore the possibility of equipping Notre Dame Stadium with video functionality, but it will remain an ad-free stadium.
Additionally, the possibility of installing a field turf surface to Notre Dame Stadium has lingered around South Bend of late, but that possibility was not addressed in Wednesday's announcement.
Via Notre Dame, here are some renderings of how the stadium's exterior will appear upon completion which, according to the school, will begin "in two years or sooner and take approximately 33 months to complete."
