VMDO Architects

VMDO completed observing construction of a 3500-seat Soccer and Track Stadium for Radford University. The University sought to update facilities for its soccer team, while at the same time building state-of-the-art facilities to start a track team.

The firm designed the stadium in relationship with the topography of the land. The stands rise in front of a hill to the stadium’s south side, and face the wooded banks of the New River to the north. Spectators enter from the south on a mid-level concourse from which they can go up into a grandstand, or down to sit on a grass berm that encloses the stadium’s southern perimeter.

The stadium’s architectural significance comes from the use of lightweight canopies. These metal-framed structures topped by a fiberglass fabric shield the grandstand and press box from the elements without the heavy, confining feeling of a traditional roof. The fabric roof references the roof of the nearby Redmon Center and marks the stadium as a prominent structure from the city’s Main Street, which runs south of the grandstand, and gives the complex a festive feel.