VMAC

VMAC is a huge, huge improvement & upgrade of all the major facilities and staff rooms. There is an article that I will post here that give the dimensions of the old versus new, and the difference is startling to say the least. The whole Seahawk organization from top to bottom will benefit from this brand new set of facilities.

[New Post & Pictures below 08.20.08]

Official Press Release

New Seahawks Training Facility Named Virginia Mason Athletic Center

KIRKLAND, WASH. – The Seattle Seahawks have announced an expanded partnership with Virginia Mason Medical Center (VM), naming the club’s new state-of-the-art football training facility the Virginia Mason Athletic Center (VMAC).

“Virginia Mason is recognized as one of the top hospitals in the country,” said Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke. “The VMAC will allow our organization to consolidate into one facility, attract and retain free agents and bring training camp back home. The Seahawks, like Virginia Mason, strive to be at the top of our profession and this partnership helps accomplish that goal.”

The 200,000 square foot Lake Washington waterfront facility, second largest in the National Football League, will be located within the northern city limits of Renton and is scheduled to open in the summer of 2008. The property is bounded by Interstate 405 to the east, Lake Washington to the west, residential property to the north and 44th Street to the south. The facility will be the year-round site for all Seahawks team training activities.

“The commitment to community and the spirit of caring for others are key building blocks for this new training center. We are proud to be affiliated with this project,” said J. Michael Rona, president of Virginia Mason Medical Center.

Virginia Mason has been in partnership with the Seahawks for over eight years. In that time, the two organizations have collaborated on many efforts including health awareness campaigns for influenza and heart disease and game day opportunities for pediatric patients. The partnership spearheads the Boeing Classic, a PGA Champions Tour golf event, which raises money for The Heart Institute at Virginia Mason. The tournament has raised nearly 1.4 million dollars for heart care in the region since 2005.

Virginia Mason Medical Center, founded in 1920, is a not-for-profit comprehensive regional health care system that combines a primary and specialty care group practice of nearly 500 physicians with a 336-bed acute care hospital in Seattle. In addition, Virginia Mason has a network of clinics located throughout the Puget Sound area, and manages Bailey-Boushay House, a nursing residence and adult day health program for people living with HIV and AIDS. Virginia Mason also has an internationally recognized research center, Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason.

Virginia Mason Athletic Center

Official Name The facility name is part of a broad Seattle Seahawks and Virginia Mason partnership to support the health and well-being of our community.

Location The site is bounded by Interstate 405 to the east, Lake Washington to the west, residential properties to the north and open land area to the south. Its southern boundary is located approximately ¼ of mile north of 44th Street..

Site Size Approximately 19.0 acres of buildable land area.

Project Size Approximately 200,000 gross square feet of enclosed space including the indoor practice field.

Building Size Approximately 124,000 gross square feet of administration and training facilities.

Outdoor Fields Area Three regulation size grass fields

Indoor Practice Area One regulation size artificial field with clear height of 95’ allowing for kicking and punting.

First Floor Team area and auditorium, including locker room, lounge, training room, weight room, team meeting rooms and media production studios.

Second Floor Seahawks football administration. Approximately 48,000 gross square feet of coaching and football personnel offices, draft room, cafeteria and weight room mezzanine.

Third Floor Seahawks administrative offices.

Training Camp The new facility will host Seahawks training camp.

VMAC Programming The VMAC will serve as a location for health and community programming.

On Site Parking Approximately 275 cars

Construction Schedule 18 months

Ground Breaking January 2007

Completion Date Summer 2008

Architects Crawford Architects

Funding Private

Property Owner Port Quendall Company

HOW BIG IS IT?

A comparison of the Seahawks’ new facility — the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton — and their current headquarters in Kirkland:

	New	Old
Site size	19 acres	10 acres
Total space*	220,000	41,000
Locker room*	5,700	1,140
Weight room*	6,000	2,430
Training room*	4,300	1,836
Player lounge*	1,350	None
Dining room*	2,200	924
Kitchen*	1,800	221
Grass fields	3	2
FieldTurf fields	1	1

* Square feet

Last updated July 25, 2008 9:01 p.m. PT

Seahawks’ move to state-of-the-art facility a giant step

By CLARE FARNSWORTH
P-I REPORTER

RENTON — The Seahawks’ almost-ready new facility on the shores of Lake Washington is, in a word, big.

Stretch that description to two words, and it’s really big.

Anyone who has driven past the imposing structure on exit 7 along I-405 knows that. But somehow the Virginia Mason Athletic Center looks even larger from the inside.

“It does,” club president Tim Ruskell said. “When you’re standing in the I.P.F. (indoor practice facility) and you look up, you go, ‘Good grief, there’s no way a punter is going to hit the top of that.’ “

But the sense of immensity doesn’t stop there. Everything about the three-story structure is grandiose, but on a functional level.

“When you’re standing there, it just kind of blows you away,” Ruskell said.

The Kirkland-to-Renton migration begins next Saturday, when the staff starts moving in. The players’ first practice there is scheduled for Aug. 18.

Ruskell considered improving the team’s headquarters from among the three smallest in the league to the second largest a must when he was hired in 2005. Ruskell, along with CEO Tod Leiweke, helped convince owner Paul Allen that the land he already had purchased was better suited for a football facility than a home base for his technology companies.

The cornerstone of the team’s new digs is that indoor practice facility that still wows Ruskell every time he walks into the structure. It contains a 100-yard FieldTurf practice field, and replaces the 80-yarder in Kirkland that is covered by an inflatable bubble from mid-October to season’s end.

The I.P.F. connects to the spacious locker room. Which leads to the beyond-spacious equipment room. Which is next to the state-of-the-art training rooms. Which is adjacent to a two-story weight room — complete with large, windowed doors that roll up.

Anyone who has toured the structure seems to have a favorite feature of the 220,000-square-foot facility. Be it the kitchen and dining area that features a panoramic view of the lake and Mercer Island. Or the theater-style auditorium that will be used for everything from coach Mike Holmgren’s midweek news conferences to staff meetings to VIP screenings of the team’s highlight film. Or the parking lot, with its 250-plus spaces — after 22 years of dealing with limited parking in Kirkland. Or the grass berm that abuts the outdoor practice fields and will be used by fans who attend training camp.

“I can’t think of just one thing,” said Cindy Kelley, the team’s director of human resources. “I don’t know that there’s anything that isn’t impressive.”

Kelley has worked for the team for 26 years. She oversaw the move in 1986 from the original headquarters in Kirkland to the current facility on property leased from Northwest University.

“We’re in awe of the whole building,” she said.

But it’s obvious that the No. 1 priority was pleasing “the product” — the players.

“My favorite thing is how we’ve taken care of the players,” Ruskell said. “We made it a goal to make it a place that they would enjoy coming to and feel like they could do whatever they needed to do year-round.

“I’m proud that that was one of our goals, and we did it. We hit it.”

In a very big way.

NEW POST

Tuesday, August 19, 2008 – Page updated at 12:30 PM

Seahawks digging their new digs in Renton

By José Miguel Romero

Seattle Times staff reporter

RENTON — The morning practice ended, and Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren finished his comments to reporters.

Then he wasn’t sure where to go. He asked a team employee how to get to his office from the indoor practice field.

Coaches and players — and just about everyone else at the Seahawks’ new headquarters on Monday — began the process of finding their way around the 19-acre, 225,000-square-foot megaplex along Lake Washington. Monday was the first full day of practices at the facility.

“I have no idea where things are,” quarterback Matt Hasselbeck admitted.

The place is a maze, but on the first day, the Virginia Mason Athletic Center proved its $60 million worth. The Seahawks began the morning practice outdoors under threatening skies, but instead of staying out in heavy rain as they would have in Kirkland, everyone moved to the 88,000-square-foot indoor field.

Indoors, as in part of the main structure. No inflatable, moldy, stuffy practice bubble like the team used in Kirkland for years.

“I wish we had practiced better, but it feels nice,” Holmgren said.

Hasselbeck agreed that getting out of the rain was a good idea. “Somebody would have pulled a groin,” he said. “Or all the quarterbacks would have been inside icing their arms. It is nice to finally have an indoor facility that you can actually throw a deep ball in.”

The FieldTurf inside is soft and forgiving like the surface at Qwest Field. A crowd of onlookers watched from a terrace perched two stories up from the field. Glass doors from a hallway into the indoor facility give the feeling of walking into a warehouse superstore.

Receiver Nate Burleson said he grew attached to the bubble, but added, “We can let that bubble die.”

The team wouldn’t have been able to use the bubble anyway because a Kirkland ordinance prohibited it from being used until October.

“We would have been out there with thunderstorms grazing over our helmets,” Burleson said.

Defensive back Jordan Babineaux also looked on the bright side.

“If you wake up and not have so good of a morning, or get up on the wrong side of the bed, you can look out the window and grab a sense of peace just by looking at the lake,” Babineaux said.