Ford Alumni Center

Project Overview

Situated adjacent to the Matthew Knight Arena and atop an underground parking structure, the Cheryl Ramberg Ford & Allyn Ford Alumni Center is the new front door of the University of Oregon, welcoming prospective students, current students, alumni, faculty and the community. Providing both inspiration and information, the modern 60,000-square foot building includes an interactive lobby, lounge, ballroom, boardrooms, conference rooms and multi-purpose gathering spaces. The Ford Alumni Center also houses the University of Oregon’s Alumni Association, Foundation and Office of Development. This dynamic facility serves to foster the connections between the school and its many friends and supporters, connecting the past, present and future of the University of Oregon.

Our Role

Pleased with JMI Sports’ performance in managing the design and construction of both the Matthew Knight Arena and the associated underground parking structure projects, the University of Oregon engaged our firm to also manage the development of its first class alumni center. JMI Sports was responsible for overseeing the design of the project and managing the collaboration and partnership between the separately selected interior and exterior architectural firms. Given site constraints, it was determined that the alumni center needed to be situated on top of the new underground parking garage, therefore a significant amount of coordination was required between the structural design of the garage and the alumni center to ensure that the needs for each structure was met while at the same time containing costs for both projects. The University was very involved with program development on their new four story office building and JMIS worked closely with the three user groups and their constituents to ensure that each department’s needs were met and aesthetic preferences were reflected. During the construction phase of the project, JMI Sports both oversaw the construction of the alumni center and coordinated the efforts amongst the three different construction teams that were simultaneously building the arena, underground garage and alumni center on one master site. This beautiful new campus asset opened in June 2011 and has achieved LEED Gold certification.

JMI Sports provided essential vision and discipline to our Alumni Center project. Their contribution proved invaluable to the successful implementation of this signature project for the University and its alumni.