Schneider expansion to accommodate Title IX

PACKED HOUSE: The renovated Schneider arena at Providence College will include a new glass-atrium lobby and revamped concession area. / COURTESY SYMMES MAINI & MCKEE ASSOCIATES
PACKED HOUSE: The renovated Schneider arena at Providence College will include a new glass-atrium lobby and revamped concession area. / COURTESY SYMMES MAINI & MCKEE ASSOCIATES

Providence College students should be used to the earth movers and construction crews by now.
After renovating two dormitories in 2011 and breaking ground on a new 63,000-square-foot humanities building last summer, Providence College is now starting a $13 million renovation and expansion of Schneider Arena, home of Friar hockey and lacrosse teams.
It’s part of a multibuilding, multiyear, campus-improvement plan matched in scale during this stagnant period for Rhode Island construction projects only by fellow Ocean State colleges and universities.
But while higher education has provided the bulk of the large building projects undertaken in Rhode Island over the last several years, campus construction is not without its unique challenges.
In the case of Schneider Arena, and many other higher education projects, the calendar is the major obstacle.
Normally renovating an arena the size of Schneider would take at least a year, but the Providence College hockey teams play into March with practice for next season starting again in September, seriously condensing the time frame.
To get the project done in time to drop the puck on schedule next season, PC hired Shawmut Design and Construction, which last year built Brown University’s Nelson Fitness Center and Coleman Aquatics Center.
In fact Shawmut completed the last two major buildings. Before the classical Nelson Center, the firm built the modernist Granoff Center for the Creative Arts.
At Schneider Arena, while teams use the inside of the 64,000-square-foot building, Shawmut plans to build the 34,000-square-foot addition on the outside. Only when the hockey season is over will crews begin working on the existing space and connect it to the addition.
“That’s five months to do what would typically take a year or probably even more,” said Ron Simoneau, vice president at Shawmut Design and Construction. “That scope and amount of work translates into a very fast-paced project within limited space.” Shawmut started the foundation and site work in November, but is still discussing the details of the interior renovations with different user groups, such as alumni and various teams, as it waits for the end of hockey season.
When completed, the enlarged and renovated Schneider will have new locker rooms for the men’s, women’s and visiting hockey teams, plus a new strength-and-conditioning facility.
The addition will create a new glass-atrium lobby with a revamped concession area and space for photos and memorabilia representing the school’s hockey history.
Seating capacity in the arena, now 3,030, will drop slightly to 2,990 as a result of changes to make the building handicapped accessible, but there will be five new, ground-level luxury boxes.
“To the students, this will feel like a completely new building,” Simoneau said. “They have really high hopes for the hockey teams and want to rally around them.”
The Schneider Arena addition was designed by Symmes Maini & McKee Associated architects, the firm that put together Providence College’s campus master plan.
Providence College Senior Vice President for Finance John Sweeney said the impetus behind the Schneider project was bringing the building up to date functionally, aesthetically and legally.”
“This building was built in 1973, before [collegiate gender-equity law] Title IX, so we have had to make accommodations for the women’s hockey program,” Sweeney said. “It was built for that era and needed updating, not just for hockey, but lacrosse and youth hockey.”
In addition to the functional improvements, the renovation will modernize Schneider’s exterior appearance, adding glass and metal elements more reflective of contemporary sports arenas than the current precast concrete. Sweeney said in addition to Shawmut’s experience in the Rhode Island higher education building world, their work on, including locker rooms for professional teams, like the Boston Bruins and New York Mets was also a plus.
Outside the arena itself, the project will also include moving an adjacent softball field to Clay Field and replacing it at the arena with an outdoor lacrosse and soccer field.
When that’s done, the school will move on to upgrading the track & field and cross-country complex.
And planning is now under way for a new business-school building, which could break ground before the end of the year.
All of these projects are part of a five-year campus master plan advanced by the Providence City Plan Commission last month.
If approved by the City Council, the Providence College master plan will include ownership of three new streets acquired from the city in exchange for larger annual payments in lieu of taxes.
Sweeney said PC has just started planning what it will do with the section of Huxley Avenue it acquired and intends to gather a significant amount of neighborhood feedback.
“We don’t have any preconceived notions of what Huxley will become,” Sweeney said. “Enhancing green space and improving public safety are important. We are going in with an open mind to have a lot of engagement from the PC community in putting together where we go from here.”
On the other two sections of street, Wardlaw Avenue and Cumberland Street, Sweeney said cutting the streets off to traffic and turning them into campus parking is the plan.
“All plans have increased parking on campus to reduce impact on the neighborhood and having people parking on the local streets,” Sweeney said. •

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