The Wooten Company at 75: Remembering the Inception of Carter-Finley Stadium - Engineering Firm Played a Significant Role in the Design of NCSU's Beloved Facility

RALEIGH, NC, May 11, 2011 (Press-News.org) As The Wooten Company continues to celebrate its 75th anniversary as one of the most reputable engineering, planning and architectural firms in North Carolina, the organization reflects on one of its most successful and well-known projects over the years - Carter-Finley Stadium. The stadium, which has served as the home of the North Carolina State University Wolfpack football team for the past 45 years, was as much an engineering feat in the 1960s as it is a true Raleigh landmark today.

In February 1962, John Caldwell, then Chancellor of NC State College of Agriculture and Engineering, commissioned Louis E. Wooten, founder of The Wooten Company, to complete a feasibility study for construction of a new athletic stadium. Mr. Wooten and his staff drafted the plans for a facility that would not only serve as a replacement for the school's outdated Riddick Stadium, but also a model structure that would be considered among the finest football stadiums in the South.

"There was consultation by the members of the Wooten firm with people who had some experience with stadiums," wrote the News & Observer's Dick Herbert in October 1966. "Thus, the best features of a number of stadiums around the country were incorporated."

The site that was selected, a 75-acre tract of land owned by the university adjacent to the North Carolina State Fairgrounds, was considered an ideal location for Wooten's design. The bowl for the stadium, which was created from draining a lake that had been used as a research fish hatchery, allowed for half of the original 40,000 seats to be built into hillside coming down from ground level. It also lent itself to future development, for which Mr. Wooten had allowed in the stadium's first designs.

Originally, the stadium was intended to be constructed within a span of two-and-a-half years and be ready for the Wolfpack's 1964 football season opener. However, inflation of building costs and other factors delayed the construction for another two years. It wasn't until additional funding was secured by local businessman Walker Martin and others, that plans moved forward again by September 1964 - when Martin also formed a stadium development committee. On a cold December morning in 1964, Martin, Wooten, and several other key officials broke ground on the new construction site.

Carter Stadium was completed in a little over 22 months, just in time for the Wolfpack's 1966 season opener, at a cost of $3.5 million.

Mr. Wooten and his staff (listed in the dedication program as "L.E. Wooten and Company, Consulting Engineers") were retained to oversee the design and construction process and were considered "In General Charge of Design." G. Milton Small and Associates were retained as Architectural Consultants, and Charles Kahn, a distinguished professor at the NC State School of Design, served as Structural Design Consultant. Yet, the project was heavily influenced by Wooten's staff, especially Marl E. Ray, P.E., who served as structural engineer and produced the bulk of the structural design construction drawings.

While many of the designs were considered impressive, even by today's standards, Wooten's crowning achievement on the project may have been the stadium's lighting system. The Illuminating Engineering Society awarded L.E. Wooten and Company its first award for commercial and industrial lighting because of the system's feature of "avoiding glare to spectators facing the lights, yet providing adequate lighting on the playing field." It even drew high praise from the CBS television crew that televised a game between the Washington Redskins and the New York Giants at Carter Stadium in 1967. Apparently, the lighting had allowed the crew to film in color whereas they could not do the same for the Redskins' games in Washington earlier that year because of "inadequate illumination." The D.C. Stadium cost nearly seven times as much to construct as Carter Stadium.

L.E. Wooten and his staff of engineering consultants were able to put their stamp on what would be considered one of the most impressive athletic facilities of its time.

The stadium was named after W.J. (Nick) and Harry Carter for their generous financial contributions and longtime support of the University's programs (A.E. Finley's name was added years later) and others like Walker Martin played key roles in its conception, but it was Mr. Wooten's vision that gave the North Carolina State University family one of the greatest structural designs in its history.

Today, The Wooten Company remembers this impressive feat as it celebrates 75 years of success in providing engineering, planning and architectural services to public and private entities across North Carolina.

The Wooten Company is focused on strategic planning and development of buildings and infrastructure for the people of North Carolina as the state continues to grow in the near future. For more information, please visit The Wooten Company's website at www.thewootencompany.com.