Northwestern University touts its new Ryan Field as “by far the nicest stadium or arena ever built in the Chicago area.”

Zachary Taylor Davis, architect of Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park, would like a word.

Hype is hype. But it’s not every day that we see a new sports arena in Chicago, and the new Ryan Field is the most architecturally distinguished sports facility since those two predecessors of more than a century ago.

The new Ryan Field replaces old Ryan Field, originally called Dyche Stadium, that stood on the same Evanston site from 1926 until its demolition in 2024.

Its final cost of $875 million is a bit more than the Obama Presidential Center, although it’s considerably less than the $2 to $3 billion forecast for the new Bears Stadium, wherever that may eventually be built.

Pat Ryan Jr., whose family name is on five buildings at the school, including the new stadium, acted as pro-bono developer on the project. His family contributed more than half of the funds for the facility.

The complex was designed by local stalwarts Perkins&Will with Kansas City-based HNTB. New York-based Rockwell Group directed the interiors for various clubs and concourses, Thornton Tomasetti were the structural engineers and Chicago’s Site Design Group conceived the varied landscaping.

There was a gladiatorial spirit to the earlier stadium, with its dual towers connected by an elegantly curving grandstand with a series of arches facing the street. It reflected its distinguished pedigree: Its original form was by James Gamble Rogers, who also designed Northwestern’s Deering Library and is best known for his extensive work on Yale’s campus in New Haven, Connecticut.

The Ryan Field designers approached the project with a certain sophistication. “It’s a civic building, as opposed to just a football stadium,” Perkins&Will Design Director Bryan Schabel explains. The exterior is clad in glass and limestone that reflects the predominant materials on Northwestern’s nearby campus.

The limestone around the stadium’s perimeter gently swoops up and down in a move that recalls the gracefully curved bowl of Ryan Field’s earlier iteration. It’s a nice touch that gives the structure an unexpected character consistent with the site’s history. One design quibble — at its uppermost reaches, the limestone is just a bit too close to the narrow edge of the steel canopy. Holding the edges just a foot or two apart could have increased the drama considerably.

Viewed from outside, the upper deck and canopy are supported by a steel framework reminiscent of old ballparks like Wrigley Field and the original Comiskey Park. The exposed structure — steel and concrete — has been carefully designed for visual appeal — something that not every American stadium can boast. And from the exterior, the upper deck and canopy steel seems rather diminutive — although it’s very much not. Upon entering the arena, the steel at the lower levels reveals itself as quite brawny. But the architects and structural engineers have detailed the steel with panache. The bolted connections are reminiscent of the detailing found on the “L,” albeit a bit supersized.

As completed, the building comprises 550,000 square feet with an overall facility size of 750,000 square feet when you include the exterior spaces that........

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