Information
Landmark: Bryce Jordan CenterCity: State College
Country: USA Pennsylvania
Continent: North America
Bryce Jordan Center, State College, USA Pennsylvania, North America
Overview
The Bryce Jordan Center, perched on Curtin Road at the eastern edge of Penn State’s University Park campus, sits right next to Beaver Stadium, its glass façade catching the late-afternoon sun.It serves as the university’s main indoor arena, hosting everything from basketball games and concerts to lectures and local festivals, with space enough to echo a marching band’s drumbeat.The groundbreaking for construction and design took place in April 1993, under a bright spring sky.It opened on January 11, 1996, with its first event-a men’s basketball game, the sound of sneakers squeaking on the court.Minnesota, where winter air can sting your cheeks.It’s named for Bryce Jordan, Penn State’s 14th president, the man who steered the school into the Big Ten-back when crisp autumn games meant a new chapter for the university.Rosser International led the design, with L lending a hand on key details.Robert Kimball and Associates, the name etched in bold on the office door.The steel truss roof stretches 344 feet (105 m) from end to end with no interior columns, leaving the view wide open, like a clear horizon.• Bowl-in-bowl configuration: lower bowl 7,000 seats, upper bowl 8,000 seats.• Retractable seating on both ends to convert quickly between basketball, concerts, exhibitions, and banquets.The arena’s bowl-in-bowl layout features a lower section with 7,000 seats and an upper tier holding 8,000, rising in neat rows toward the rafters.Retractable seats at both ends let the space switch in minutes from a basketball court to a concert stage, an exhibition hall, or a banquet room with crisp table linens.Basketball capacity: 15,261 for men’s games, and 13,848 for women’s when the upper bowl is curtained off, dimming the bright rows above.End-stage concert seating tops out at 15,728, enough to pack the arena wall to wall.Center stage at the concert held nearly 16,000 fans, their voices echoing under the bright lights.From graduations to circuses, ice shows, boxing matches, and trade expos, these events set up floors that can hold anywhere from 3,000 seats to a packed 9,000.The floor spans 150 by 250 feet-about 38,000 square feet-built solid enough to handle heavy staging and rumbling trucks.Inside, you’ll find 20 luxury courtside suites-added in 2011-and four cozy loge boxes with a clear view of the action.The Club Level seats 900 and includes a private lounge with plush chairs and soft lighting.The basketball programs have two practice courts, a weight room, an athletic training room, a film room, and players’ lounges where sneakers squeak against the floor.Twelve concession stands, four full-time bars, and a handful of portable kiosks where the scent of popcorn drifts through the air.Eight locker rooms-two built to NBA dimensions and six smaller side rooms with cool tile floors.A 3,200‑square‑foot press and media room, along with production offices, all wired with fast fiber uplinks that hum softly in the background.A Daktronics 7 mm LED center-hung video board, installed in 2021, glows overhead, with 360° fascia ribbons wrapping the arena in light.Every February, THON brings thousands together for a 46-hour dance marathon-the world’s largest student-run philanthropy-raising more than $15 million each year to fight pediatric cancer.Each August, incoming freshmen gather for Welcome Week Convocation, filling the hall with the buzz of new beginnings.The State College High School graduation, buzzing regional robotics meets, busy career fairs, and sprawling academic conferences.The big entertainment launch that year kicked off with Rod Stewart, lighting up the stage in February 1996.Bruce Springsteen, Garth Brooks with a three‑night streak, U2, Beyoncé, Metallica, Elton John, Taylor Swift, and Justin Timberlake have all packed the place to the rafters.I’ve worked television tapings for WWE Raw more than once, caught the sparkle of Disney on Ice, and covered the high-energy American Idol Live Tour.In the 2010s, we retrofitted the lights with LEDs, slashing energy use by half and giving the rooms a crisp, bright glow.In 2018, we installed high‑efficiency HVAC chillers along with a heat‑recovery system that hums softly in the background.In 2023, we installed a 400‑kW solar array on the rooftop, feeding clean power straight into the campus microgrid.THON’s zero-waste program keeps 90% of trash out of the landfill, from empty water bottles to crumpled snack wrappers.A pedestrian bridge takes you straight to Stadium West and Jordan East lots, where 8,600 parking spots stretch out in neat rows.On class days, CATA’s Blue and White Loop buses pull up to the west entrance every five minutes, brakes hissing as the doors swing open.The I‑99 and US‑322 interchange sits three miles east, and the University Park Airport is six miles northeast, just past the rolling fields.Each year, more than 150 ticketed events pump about $60–70 million into the local economy, filling cafés, shops, and streets with steady business.
