Watch: Florida announces selection of firm for design of stand-alone football facility

Florida’s University Athletic Association announced today that they had selected an engineering firm to design the proposed $60 million stand-alone football facility that was part of UF’s $100 athletic facility upgrades initiative. Florida chose Kansas City-based HOK, a global architecture and engineering firm.

HOK has designed many sporting projects, including Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the renovation of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, and Clemson University's new football operations facility. Hiring HOK marks the latest step in Florida’s plans for the stand-alone football facility project.

Take a look at some conceptual designs for the proposed football facility (interspersed with some Gator highlights and clips):

UF envisions an approximately 130,000 square-foot three-story building which will serve as the meeting and training headquarters for the gridiron Gators, and be located across the Sanders Practice Fields from the team’s indoor practice facility.

Based on the plans for the project that were released in December, Florida hopes to break ground on the football facility in December 2017 and complete the project in June 2019. The facility will hold a locker room, strength and conditioning center, hydrotherapy space, team meeting rooms, coaching offices, a nutrition bar, and other amenities.

Florida already kicked off their donation-seeking campaign for this and other planned facility improvements with the Gator Game Changers initiative.