Can we hear you? Yes, we can, thanks to a proposed 159-foot-tall tower that is planned for the University of Oregon campus’ Hayward Field. The gray monolith, which will be 60.5 inches in diameter, also will be the tallest structure on campus, surpassing the building of Prince Lucien Campbell Hall by 51 feet.
Inside Towers reported in February, the new tower was part of a push for the University of Oregon to host the 2021 world track and field championships. SBA Communications, the tower owner, negotiated with the university for four months before the agreement was reached. Additionally, the university had to show condemnation for the public interest, that the expansion project is for the greatest public good and the least private injury.
The tower, which will be made of galvanized steel, will be built by SBA Communications, according to The Register-Guard. The height “will allow the telecommunications company to provide antennae to additional cell phone carriers.” Planners have determined that the tower will not obstruct views of Skinner and Gillespie buttes, and painting the tower will dampen any glare that might occur in Hayward Field’s grandstands. The new tower, The Register-Guard reports, will replace the existing 120-foot-tall tower that currently sits adjacent to the west grandstand. The new tower site is 425 feet to the south of that tower, a 2,152-square-foot area that SBA Communications has leased through 2039. The university also will build a 1,440-square-foot equipment building on that property for other cell phone companies to contract through SBA for use.
SBA’s documents state that the old cell tower must be vacated by SBA by August 1, and if the company complies, the university will drop the rent it charges by 50 percent for five years. “The university is paying up to $1 million for the new cell tower, with money given for that purpose by an unnamed donor to the UO Foundation,” the newspaper reports.
Reader Interactions