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University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles has a long history of winning athletic teams. However, USC men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball teams share several arenas around Los Angeles and have never had their own home court venue.
USC recently awarded a contract to Clark Construction Group - California, LP to build the Galen Center - a 210,000-square-foot event center with 10,260 seats - as well as an Athletic Pavilion that features four practice courts and offices. Located at Jefferson Boulevard and Figueroa Street on the USC campus southwest of downtown, this facility will provide this first true home court advantage to the basketball and volleyball teams. It will also host a variety of community events, concerts and other non-athletic events.
Construction of the Galen Center, the first phase of the project, includes a four locker room complex, visiting team and referee locker rooms, weight room, concession stands and support spaces, a multipurpose room with full kitchen, a hall of fame area, a merchandise store, toilet rooms and other associated support spaces. This phase also incorporates site development work, landscape and hardscape.
Phase two construction of the Athletic Pavilion consists of a 75,000-square-foot, two-story structure with coaches’ offices, administrative space, meeting rooms and storage space on the lower floor. The upper floor will house practice courts. The Pavilion will connect to Galen Center at both levels.
“Right now we are recruiting on our tradition. You add a new facility to that and we have the complete package. If we can bring a prospective student-athlete here and show them the new locker rooms, new team meetings rooms, coaches offices and video rooms, it will bump us up a level. The Galen Center is the missing piece to our puzzle,” says USC head women’s basketball coach Mark Trakh.
A donation from alumnus Louis Galen and his wife Helene helped the University secure the financing needed to begin construction. The rest of the money was raised privately. USC estimates a total economic impact of more than $150 million, in addition to 1,300 jobs created during the Center’s construction. The project is schedule for completion in 2006.
HNTB of Los Angeles designed the project. Other team members include M-E Engineers of Culver City, Calif., MEP engineer and John A. Martin & Associates of Los Angeles as the structural engineer.
Contact: Corporate Communications
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