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QuickTake:
The University of Oregon is seeking an exception to Eugene City Code that would allow it to construct a 550-foot-long wall decorated with Oregon football imagery and a nearly 700 square foot “O” symbol in front of the indoor practice facility under construction near Autzen Stadium.
That’s a big O.
Motorists on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Eugene could one day be greeted by a massive, Oregon Ducks-themed sign outside of the football team’s new indoor practice facility next to Autzen Stadium.
But first, the University of Oregon needs Eugene planners to approve exceptions to city code that regulates the number and size of signs allowed in public spaces. Namely, whether an “O” logo bigger than most studio apartments would be allowed.
The roughly 550-foot-long wall that the sign would be built on is expected to feature well-known Ducks football imagery, with a design style similar to the track and field images adorning the 10-story tower soaring over Hayward Field.
Documents and blueprints filed Jan. 26 with the Eugene Planning and Development Department show the UO’s trademark “O” emblem standing 24 feet tall and 29 feet wide within the sign, which would be constructed just east of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard’s intersection with Leo Harris Parkway.
At 696 square feet, the “O” symbol would blow past the 275-square-foot maximum that would be allowed under Eugene City Code based on the length of the wall.
UO athletic department and Campus Planning & Facilities Management officials didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment.
The sign would “visually connect the University’s new indoor and outdoor football practice facilities to the Autzen Stadium Complex as a whole,” the UO’s landscape architect on the project, Eugene-based Cameron McCarthy, wrote in its application seeking exceptions to city sign codes.
The application noted that the city has granted similar exceptions, called variances, for signs at five other UO athletic facilities: Autzen Stadium, PK Park, the Moshofsky Center, Matthew Knight Arena and Hayward Field.
The massive wall sign at the northwest corner of the indoor practice field is one of two that the UO hopes to build flanking the new facility, which is scheduled to open next year. The second sign would be at the field’s southeast corner near the Moshofsky Center. UO also needs an exemption from the city to build the second sign.
The privately funded project managed by the UO Foundation is expected to include 170,000 square feet of indoor practice and training space for the football team when it’s completed.
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