BU wants to renovate Hinkle Fieldhouse

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Butler University is ready to launch a serious fundraising campaign. The school wants to invest in renovations at Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Chances are, if you haven't been to a game at Hinkle, you know someone who has. The fieldhouse has been the home of high school basketball games for generations, in addition to being the home of the Butler Bulldogs.

When it was built in 1928, Hinkle was the largest arena in the United States.

Now it needs a facelift. Butler's Michael Kaltenmark says "we've got to make sure it lasts another eight decades."

Renovations have been underway since July. You can follow their progress by watching a maze of scaffolding move around the building.

Workers will replace the mortar around each of the building's 820,000 bricks.

They'll also replace the windows. Kaltenmark says that improvement alone is "long overdue." The new glass will be less drafty and more energy efficient.

The work must preserve Hinkle's historic qualities. Kaltenmark says it must be done "in a way that also makes it useful in a modern era."

Project managers intend to finish the front of the building before the basketball season starts. Then, fans can enter the building uninterrupted. The scaffolding will then shift to the sides of the building that fans never see. The managers hope that will be done by December.

In the spring, after the basketball season, the work can move inside.

Workers will expand the concourses. Fans will find it less crowded as they seek their seats or go out for popcorn and hot dogs.

The indoor work will also replace what was the university's indoor pool, maybe the oldest indoor pool in Indiana. It appears that's too far gone for repairs. Kaltenmark says, "we're talking about 18,000 square feet of space that we'll be able to reclaim and re-purpose."

Three floors will be reclaimed and re-purposed.

The bottom floor will be locker rooms. The concourse level will be expanded to offer room for athletic training, tutoring, and a multi-media classroom. Kaltenmark says the improvements will serve not only student-athletes but the entire Butler student body.

A "Save America's Treasures" grant helped get the work started, this summer.

On Wednesday, the university released this video to its faculty, staff and students, inviting them to help with the fundraising campaign - even if they donate only spare change.

Kaltenmark says "we're kind of eyeballing about $25 million to do everything that we'd like to do."

If the school raises more, it has places to spend any additional money. But they want to preserve what everyone knows about the building. "When you roll up to Hinkle Fieldhouse," Kaltenmark says, "you should see the same building that you have seen for eight decades. That's very important."