The project scope included three new buildings and numerous renovations of the existing stadium envelope and interior. The new structures, which house various university programs, wrap around three sides of the existing football stadium.

The stadium’s iconic, intricate façade required great care. Structural engineers from sdi-structures rose to the challenge by developing a complex system of structural drawings. They individually detailed 65 unique concrete masonry unit (CMU) piers and then tagged each on elevation views to ensure everyone on the project team saw the big picture.

The massing of the exterior masonry was detailed aesthetically to match Knute Rockne’s original stadium. The façade is layered and set back as it ascends over multiple stories, thanks to close collaboration between the project’s structural engineers and masonry experts. The finished result features complex built-up brick and block masonry walls and piers that rest on multiple framed floors.

Given the elaborate brick patterns, designing relief angles and attachments posed a unique structural engineering challenge. The solution? A carefully engineered combination of post-installed epoxy anchors, screw anchors, through bolts, and welded embed plates supports those relief angles—invisible to the average viewer but beautiful to the trained eye of a structural engineer.