Rose Bowl New Press Box

The Rose Bowl has been an iconic part of the community of Pasadena since the 1920’s and is designated a National Historic Landmark and an engineering landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Over the years, the facility has undergone numerous renovations; however, it fell short of meeting the needs of a 21st century community. With the mission to improve the economic and civic viability of the structure, the Rose Bowl Operating Company – RBOC (representatives from the City of Pasadena, UCLA, and the Tournament of Roses Committee) broke ground in January 2011 on the largest renovation the structure has ever faced. The $152 million renovation included a substantial reconstruction of the Press Box to include contemporary, state of the art luxury suites, loge boxes, club seating and lounge areas. The RBOC hired 3QC to commission the Press Box Renovation to ensure that CALGreen mandatory measures were met and that the facility met the Green Building goals of the City of Pasadena. Expanded to three times its original size, the new facility includes Mitsubishi VRF HVAC systems, state of the art video replay systems as well as dining and cooking facilities for both private suites and press boxes. The top level of the press box is reserved and accommodates both the specials needs of video and radio broadcasters. There is also a command center to accommodate security, police, fire and Rose Bowl personnel.

During initial use of the Press Box Suites thermal comfort issues arose during events but could not be replicated when we returned to the site to retest the suites. When we attended a football event, we witnessed that the excessive heat generation was attributed to food preparation equipment brought into the suites but not anticipated or accounted for in the original design. This issue could have been addressed with a thoroughly developed Owners Project Requirements (OPR).

Photo Credit: iStock – (c) Jorge Villalba