22 photos: How Georgia Tech’s football stadium expansion turned out

The former hulking, concrete northeast corner of Georgia Tech’s football stadium is officially a thing of the past. 

University officials and project leaders recently cut the ribbon on a major expansion for Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field called the Thomas A. Fanning Student-Athlete Performance Center. 

The 108,000-square-foot project aims to modernize Georgia Tech’s historic football stadium, while helping recruiting and boosting athlete performance, recovery, and wellness. (The facility’s use of huge window banks to frame Atlanta’s skyline should help impress young recruits, logic says.)  

The Fanning Center—a project designed by The S/L/A/M Collaborative and constructed by DPR Construction, both Atlanta-based companies—broke ground in March 2024. 

It features Georgia Tech’s first sports science lab (designed to help student-athletes across all 17 Yellow Jackets’ sports) along with cutting-edge space for strength and conditioning, and sports medicine and nutrition, according to university reps. 

Elsewhere onsite are enhanced meeting and office spaces reserved for Georgia Tech football use. 

According to Audrey Daley, a project sustainability manager at DPR construction, the expansion was partially constructed with salvaged steel from the demolished upper deck of Bobby Dodd Stadium. Some of the aforementioned stadium concrete was also used in the project’s foundation to help reduce construction waste. 

The building is named for Tech alumnus Dr. Thomas A. Fanning, a booster who holds three degrees from the institute and was considered a visionary in the energy industry during a 43-year career with the Southern Company.

Expansion work at the circa-1913 stadium—the oldest on-campus stadium in major college football—will join other planned changes aimed at leveling up the gameday experience, as Georgia Tech enjoys an era of renewed gridiron relevance. 

First announced in fall 2024, a $500-million campaign called Full Steam Ahead is scheduled to start work this year on upgraded facilities for Ramblin’ Wreck football fans, along with basketball and volleyball players.

For Bobby Dodd Stadium, the transformation is set to include a massive videoboard at the south end, new clubs and a speakeasy, along with an array of deluxe suites.

Find a photo tour of the finished stadium expansion in the gallery above. 

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