Sumptuous are the scholarship suites. Massive is the media level. Panoramic is the view from the photo deck.
Yes, the nearly complete press box on the west side of Memorial Stadium is a crown jewel that makes Mount Oread even more majestic.
After taking a tour of the towering $13 million facility the other day, I have only one subjective complaint.
It's just too bad the facade, an esthetic eye-pleasing architectural delight, won't be seen by more people.
First let me tell you about the west face of the structure.
I figured it would be generic -- a huge ocean of concrete broken only by a couple of small windows and perhaps a bump here on there for plumbing or electrical conduits.
Instead, the facade of the new press box features a massive cantilevered bay window balanced by railed balconies. In fact, a small semi-triangular balcony -- it might hold five people, max -- juts unobtrusively from the north end just off the media level.
As soon as I saw that eclectic balcony, I asked if it was a designated smoking area for media-types. Nope, I was told. It's strictly a part of the design and smokers will not be allowed to use it.
Fine " but what WILL it be used for?
It will be used by the Pope, someone quipped, the next time Notre Dame plays here. That's a joke, folks. The Irish aren't coming. In fact, with those pre-season "Classics" outlawed by the NCAA beginning in 2002, it might be another 61 years before KU and Notre Dame meet again in football, unless it's in a postseason bowl game.
Meanwhile, back to the facade.
Etched in the polished concrete above the entrance are the words "University of Kansas Memorial Stadium." Very classy.
Just outside the entryway are lights curving on a half-moon pattern. Flanking the lights to the north and to the south will be a half dozen or so red maple trees.
So attractive will be the west side of Memorial Stadium be that I expect to see it appear on postcards and in brochures along with the Campanile, Fraser Hall and the Anschutz Library (another hidden jewel).
Trouble is, the only way to view the west side of the press box is to take Maine Street and drive right up to it. From afar, the west face will be virtually impossible to see because of the abrupt hill behind and the large building -- the former JRP residence hall being converted for use by the School of Education -- that blocks the sight line from the only road above.
As you probably know, when you're driving west on the Kansas Turnpike near the East Lawrence exit, you can see the stadium press box through the trees, especially in the winter after the leaves have fallen.
That turnpike view will be even more impressive now because the press box has more than doubled in size. But the east side of the press box is, out of necessity, very plain. It's just windows, windows and, uh, windows. Oh, there is a definitive slanting metal roof shading the open photo deck, but it's too bad the west won't be the most visible side.
All in all, it makes me wish KU's stadium was located where Nebraska's is.
NU's Memorial Stadium -- its renovated and expanded press box will also debut this season -- may have the most visible west stadium face in the country. Nebraska has a downtown campus and is hard by Interstate 180, the main artery from downtown Lincoln to I-80. So thousands of motorists see it every day.
Not that anyone connected with Lawrence or Kansas University wishes KU had a downtown campus. Much of KU's charm lies in its hill-and-vale location away from the center of commerce.
Add to that charm the west side of Memorial Stadium.
-- Chuck Woodling's phone message number is 832-7147. His e-mail address is cwoodling@ljworld.com.
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