Tear-down of Finch Yeager Building begins Monday

Tenters in Krzyzewskiville may have been rudely awakened Monday, as the next step in the $100 million renovations to Wallace Wade Stadium got underway—with a bang.

Construction crews began the dismantling of the Finch Yeager Building early Monday morning, ripping away concrete columns, dry wall and steel interior with heavy machinery. The building had served as the press box for home football games, and also housed the offices of Duke Sports Medicine.

Machines punctured the back wall of the building and ripped down, sending debris cascading to the concourse below. After slicing through the building's concrete columns, the machine brought an entire corner of the building to the ground in a heap, filling the air with dust.

"They're scheduled to be completed with [getting it] down to flat to grade, with everything gone and ready to move on to the next steps by next Friday," Deputy Director of Athletics Mike Cragg said. "It's about a 12-day process."

New construction and renovation projects at Duke must meet Leadership in Energy and Efficient Design (LEED) standards. Cragg said that 80 percent of the debris generated by the two weeks of deconstruction—which is being executed by The Beck Group—will be re-used in some capacity.

The new building will be constructed throughout the 2015 season, and is expected to be completed in time for the beginning of the 2016 campaign. When finished, the five-story, 91,000 square foot tower will be home to media seating, the President's box, coaches' boxes, 21 luxury suites and exterior club seating.

"This coming year, a frame will be up, so there will be movement, but it won't be an inhabitable building," Cragg said.

The new facility is currently being referred to as Blue Devil Tower. Cragg said the building does have a naming opportunity, but nothing has been announced.

Construction of the tower will cause some temporary inconveniences during the 2015 football season.

Media members and gameday operations staff will work in makeshift tenting structures covering 12 upper rows of the stadium bowl below where the new building will sit. The press area will be segmented and sound-proofed to allow print, radio and television media members to work in close proximity—it will likely stretch from 25-yard line to 25-yard line.

"If you imagine where the Finch Yeager Building is right now and you go down into the bowl itself about 12 rows, those 12 rows will become media and operations for gameday," Cragg said. "It'll go maybe from 25-yard line to 25-yard line."

Offensive and defensive coordinators displaced from the coaches' boxes in the Finch Yeager Building will be housed on the other side of the stadium for the coming season.

With its previous home being demolished, Duke Sports Medicine has moved to the Center for Living Campus on Erwin Road, where Cragg said it will remain after Blue Devil Tower is completed.

Down on the field level, construction crews have ripped out the track surrounding the field and pushed the playing surface down eight feet. New seats are being added on both sidelines to bring fans closer to the action.

The construction on the stadium's field and bowl seating is scheduled to be ready by the time the Blue Devils return to Wallace Wade for their home opener Sept. 12 against N.C. Central. Cragg confirmed Monday that the work schedule was proceeding according to plan.

Because the construction will not finish until shortly before that game, the University's Commencement ceremony for the Class of 2015 has been relocated to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park in downtown Durham.

Cragg said the ongoing construction of the new tower during the 2015-16 academic year won't affect football games, and won't impact the commencement ceremony for the Class of 2016.

"That just [depends on] the field, that's why we don't have the field in this year," Cragg said. "The tower itself has no bearing on having the commencement [in Wallace Wade]."

This article has been updated to reflect new information.