Ryan Field, Northwestern University’s nearly 100-year-old football stadium at 1501 Central Street in Evanston, is being demolished and replaced with a new stadium. Demolition work began in February of this year, and has progressed to the point that little remains of the stadium but memories and a little bit of the press box tower.
All that remains is this portion of the press box tower. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Completed in 1926, Ryan Field was designed by James Gamble Rogers. Originally known as Dyche Stadium, in 1997 it was renamed in honor of Patrick G. Ryan, 1959 Northwestern graduate who bestowed upon the university a sizable donation for the stadium’s renovation.
Alas, by 2024 Northwestern had decided it wanted a more modern facility, and the decision was made to tear down the 45,000-seat field and replace it with a 35,000-seat facility. And so it was that on November 18, 2023, the Northwestern Wildcats defeated the Purdue Boilermakers 23-15 in the final game at old Ryan Field, some 97 years after the venerable stadium’s debut.
Caisson work near the north endzone. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Driving steel sheets. Photo by Daniel Schell
Excavation and sheet driving on the east edge of the stadium site. Photo by Daniel Schell
On the opposite side of the field, excavation work has already begun on the new stadium, including the sinking of steel piles into the ground.
While the football team looks elsewhere to play, a new team is on the field for demo and construction: Alpine Demolition is the demolition contractor, and they have an impressive array of equipment on the site. The general ontractor for the stadium rebuild is a two-parter. Turner Construction and Walsh Construction are tag-teaming the project under the moniker of the Central Street Consortium. HNTB and Perkins+Will pulled design duties.
Some photos of demolition progress from February and March, 2024:
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
Photo via Building Up Chicago
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I will forever be heartbroken that Northwestern and the Ryan family were unable to find a way to save some part of the old stadium to be immortalized in the new.
Totally agree. I had hoped the two towers could have been integrated. Nothing was saved, not even hanging banners
Bittersweet- spent many hours watching the Cats play there years ago. I graduated in that stadium. Happy that the school is moving forward with a beautiful new stadium, but sad to see a piece of my past reduced to rubble nonetheless.
The City will end up loving the new stadium despite all the whining. I live across the street and deal with the trucks and dust-dirty cars, pile driving, noise and air pollution etc. I walk past it several times a day and what I see is an enormously professional organization working very efficiently. Annoying, sure. Worthy of the hyperbolic rhetoric? Not at all. They are doing what they can to ease the burden on residents and if the demolition is any indication of the final venue, the new building will be a joy and will raise housing values (not lower them) and the Evanston way of life. It’s a done deal… time to back Northwestern and become part of the solution. We’re all going to live.
I lived a block from there, and played and went to games there. They’d let us in after the 1st quarter.
I have many fond memories of the place and the people I was with at Dyche, including being in the marching band, but the place was a dump. Old is not really the same as good. (Just ask my students.)
Judge Hofheinz invented the schmoozing suite.
It’s not about football, it’s about bid-nis.
It feels as though Evanston is now in Texas.