Blue White Illustrated

to the media room. Former athletic di- rector Tim Curley came up with the idea to use the media room as a theater, with curtains and a large screen closing off part of the room where the media sit for news conferences. The added cost was negligible in comparison to the bungled lighting. It was also Curley's wise decision to prominently display the dramatic col- ored artwork of former player Adam Tal- iaferro on the media room wall near that museum door. The painting shows Talia- ferro walking onto the stadium field be- fore that 2001 Miami opener less than a year after suffering what could have been a permanently paralyzing injury at Ohio State. That is one of the greatest mo- ments in Penn State's sports history, and the painting is worthy of its conspicuous location. There were other things inside the museum that didn't turn out the way they were designed and still others added that were not in the original plans. Sometimes it works out and other times it doesn't. My responsibilities as museum director also included the trophy cases at other athletic department venues, such as Rec Hall, the Bryce Jordan Center and the White Building, as well as supervising the museum entrance gate on football game days. Those duties broadened the scope of my involvement with athletic depart- ment facilities. I learned that in planning, designing and constructing athletic facil- ities, everything comes with a price tag, plans can go awry in design, and one has to be flexible because of the "unforeseen and unpleasant consequences." The Mount Nittany Club is a classic example. If you've ever been in the club on game day, you are immediately aware of how crowded it is. The interior was originally designed to accommodate 4,000 people, the same number of seats available outside for club members and their guests. Initial plans also included a second floor that would have allowed club goers to sit and stand inside and watch the game through large win- dows, a nice perk during inclement weather. Further- more, there was more wide-open space between the east and west en- trance doors with the booths selling food and Penn State memorabilia locat- ed elsewhere in the facility. That open space one now sees in the middle of the club, used for various pregame activi- ties, was supposed to stretch across the entire first and second floors. Plans went awry and construction changes were made to reduce the usable square footage of open space in what's termed "value engineering," which means severely cutting costs because of the budget. That's also why the two ele- vators near each of the club entrances are smaller than they were originally HISTORY LESSONS In any construc- tion project, problems can arise where they are least expected – as the stadium and museum il- lustrate. Photo by Greg Grieco

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