A rendering of the new Loeb Stadium in Lafayette, Indiana, which should be fully renovated by fall 2020.

American Structurepoint Inc., which already has strong ties to Purdue University and the surrounding community, is building on that relationship with the renovation of Lafayette’s historic Loeb Stadium.

The Indianapolis-based engineering and architectural consulting firm, which is owned by a Purdue civil engineering graduate and employs more than 100 Purdue grads, is overseeing the estimated $21 million project. Construction on the Columbian Park baseball stadium began in August 2019 and is scheduled to be completed in fall 2020.

Rick Conner (BSCE ’76), a recipient of Purdue’s Civil Engineering Alumni Achievement Award and a prominent supporter of the Lyles School of Civil Engineering, is majority owner, president and COO of American Structurepoint. He says 40 of his staff worked on the project design, including a dozen who are Purdue civil engineering graduates.

“We’ve hired a tremendous number of Purdue civil engineers over the years. Simply put, Purdue produces some of the finest civil engineers out there,” Conner says. “Working on Loeb Stadium is really cool for us because it’s a project right in our community. We’ve done tons and tons of local projects — at Purdue, in Lafayette, around Indianapolis — and they’re all a way of giving back. For civil engineers like us, we believe our projects enhance the quality of life for the communities we serve.”

Conner says his company has designed many projects on campus and in Greater Lafayette. This includes designing the new Rolls-Royce building and working on renovations for Stone Hall, Hampton Hall, the Physics Building, State Street, Lindberg Road through the Celery Bog Nature Area, and several locations in downtown Lafayette. The company even has a named conference room in Hampton Hall.

This symbiotic relationship comes full circle on the Loeb Stadium project, where Purdue graduates hired by American Structurepoint return to Lafayette to transform the aging baseball stadium into a multipurpose facility – a cornerstone, city officials believe, of Lafayette’s continued economic development.

Jeromy Grenard, Lafayette's city engineer and director of public works, personifies this arrangement. A Lafayette native, 2001 Purdue civil engineering graduate and former American Structurepoint employee, Grenard now is responsible for overseeing the municipal portion of the Loeb project.

“This is one of those projects that only comes along once in a lifetime. The previous Loeb Stadium has been a part of this community since 1940, the same year that Elliott Hall of Music was dedicated and the Boilermaker Special was introduced as Purdue's mascot,” Grenard says. “It’s great that both the city and our design and construction teams include Purdue civil engineering alumni and other Purdue graduates.”