Save Mart Center,
Fresno
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Save Mart Center,
Fresno
Photo by Justin Kase Conder
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The huge new building on the campus of California State University,
Fresno, may look like an agricultural structure, but it's
actually the $103 million Save Mart Center, home to Bulldog
sports and major concerts.
The sports and entertainment venue represents the largest
privately financed project in the history of the 23-campus
California State University system and the largest venue of
its type in central California.
School officials expect more than 1 million spectators a
year to visit the facility, which will also host the Fresno
Falcons minor league hockey team, rodeos, concerts, family
shows and cultural events. It seats between 15,000 and 18,000
spectators and is outfitted with 32 private luxury suites,
1,000 club seats and a club-level concourse.
"This has always been a dream of
our community, to have an on-campus arena. We've been
in a sold-out capacity for our men's basketball games
for several years now. The missing facility for us on
campus was a multipurpose arena for our men's and women's
basketball teams."
-Deborah Adishian-Astone,
project coordinator, Fresno State
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The Clark Construction Group began the prject in October
2001 and had it completed in time for the grand opening celebration
on Nov. 7, 2003.
Don Dethlefs, president of project architect Sink Combs Dethlefs
and senior project architect for the arena, called its rustic
design "an updated California Mission style" inspired
by other Fresno State structures with similar features such
as red-tile roofs and an abundant use of synthetic stucco.
Dethlefs said that a key to the center's success and accessibility
is the subterranean bowl.
"We buried the building 32 ft., which is very unusual
for an arena, and luckily there was no water table there,"
he added. "We did this so we could have the concourse
right at the entry-ground level. So people just walk right
in from the parking lot. [The ground-level concourse] eliminates
a lot of stairs and lot of circulation, and it really tries
to simplify."
The Development Team
Owner: The California State University
Architect: Sink Combs Dethlefs
General contractor: The Clark Construction Group Inc.
Engineers: John A. Martin Associates (structural)
ME Engineers (mechanical and electrical)
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