7/2/2015 Mike Koon
Written by Mike Koon
By Mike Koon
Bill Bennett has fond childhood memories of Wrigley Field – from his dad always telling him to stop and smell the grass when coming up the stairs to his seat to the time when Bennett was five years old and Hall of Famer Billy Williams tossed him a ball.
Today, perhaps no one knows the intimate details of the 101-year old ballpark better than Bennett. That’s because the University of Illinois alumnus is leading Pepper Construction’s $500 million renovation to the home of the Chicago Cubs.
Bennett, a native of suburban Libertyville, Ill., began helping the Cubs plan the project in 2009. The work actually began two years ago with a series of structural improvements, but kicked into high gear with a complete overhaul of the bleachers during this past winter and spring. The renovation, dubbed “The 1060 Project” after Wrigley’s address (1060 West Addison), is expected to take another four years to complete.
The conversation started with the need to build a modern clubhouse for the team and turned into a bigger vision for the Ricketts family, the Cubs' owners.
“The Ricketts know how important this facility is to this neighborhood,” Bennett said. “When they acquired the Cubs, they had the goals of bringing a World Series to the team, being a good neighbor, and preserving Wrigley Field. All their decisions are based on these concepts. The preserving Wrigley part was something we could help with.”
Bennett added that for the Ricketts, the restoration centers on preserving the beauty, charm and historic features of the Wrigley Field fans have cherished for more than a century, while upgrading the overall game-day experience.
“For six years, we’ve been talking about what that vision is, how we can accomplish that vision, what it will cost, and how we should schedule the project in multiple phases around the baseball season,” Bennett said.
While his collaboration with the Cubs began six years ago, the foundation for Bennett’s role in the project was laid at the University of Illinois. He completed a bachelor’s degree in 1991 and a master’s in 1993, both in civil and environmental engineering, the top-ranked CEE program in the country.
“I could go on about my experiences at Illinois for a long time,” Bennett said. “The research and the facilities there are awesome and the professors were some of the brightest, most brilliant people on earth in our industry. I learned concrete from Bill Gamble, who wrote the ACI code for concrete, and I sat in on a lecture from Ralph Peck, who is like the godfather of soils engineering. That’s like learning physics from Newton. In addition to their knowledge and expertise, their experience gave us a more practical sense of what engineering has to be.”
To say Bennett wears his Illinois colors on his sleeve would be an understatement.
“When I was coming out of school, I was in an interview and this guy was explaining what I could be doing if I got the job,” Bennett said tongue-in-cheek. “I told him I graduated from the number one civil engineering school in the country. We’re not talking about some second-rate institution like Stanford or MIT. We’re talking about the U of I here. In all seriousness, I garner a lot of respect from the industry because of my credentials from Illinois.”
For the next decade, Bennett spent his time establishing himself in the construction industry around the Midwest with stops in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Columbus and Chicago. He has built hospitals, hotels, schools, retail space, and office buildings, including a 52-story structure on Wacker Drive in downtown Chicago.
“Every one of my projects has been a really cool experience,” Bennett said. “That has helped my breadth of knowledge in the construction industry. I think that while I don’t practice engineering any more, I can speak engineering, specifically structural and geotechnical, which were my emphases. I can understand the process of design better than a lot people who just have a construction management degree.”
In 2004, a headhunter advised Bennett of an opportunity at Pepper and he jumped at the chance.
“When he said, ‘Yes it’s with Pepper,’ I said, “Keep talking,” Bennett remembers. “The reputation at Pepper is something that everybody knows. I would say everyone in the industry has at least one part of their body that wants to work for Pepper because they’re the best.”
For Bennett, Project 1060 is both rewarding and challenging at the same time.
“Doing the work in multi-year phases, mostly during the off-season creates its own fun,” Bennett said. “With most of the work outside in Chicago weather, that adds to the challenge. But it’s our job to work through that. The deadlines are firm because Opening Day is fixed on the calendar.”
From an engineering perspective, restoring an historic structure built before World War I has been stimulating.
“At the base of the some of the columns were cast-iron pyramids, which we replaced,” Bennett said. “It’s something we won’t ever see in a structure in this day and age. This is a mix of cast-in-place concrete structural frame, Cast-in-place concrete on steel frame, and precast concrete on steel frame and several parts of it are original. A lot of the concrete is in disrepair. They do patches and repairs every year, but they are looking at holistic repair and/or replacement for the longevity of the ballpark.”
There have been other relics that have been unearthed, which the Cubs are collecting for posterity, including old construction equipment, historic doors and windows, bottles and remnants of the railroad which once ran along the west side of the stadium.
“It’s a lot of fun mixed in with a lot of different types of emotion,” Bennett said of this once-in-lifetime opportunity. “I always tell myself that this is a project that literally will never happen again because the next oldest stadium to be restored is Dodger Stadium (which opened in 1962). Nobody in the industry will say that they did this type of project ever. To have the memories I had as a kid and to come here with my children and hopefully my grandchildren someday and say that this is something that daddy had a part in restoring, there can’t be anything more cool than that."
VIEW ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
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WATCH VIDEO
Bill Bennett (BS '91; MS '93) describes his earliest memories of Wrigley Field, his path through Civil Engineering at Illinois, and fulfilling a dream with Pepper Construction.
WATCH VIDEO VIGNETTES
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Pepper Construction is a general contracting and construction management firm serving the Midwest & Texas.
Editorial Contact:
Mike Koon (mkoon@illinois.edu | 217-244-1256)
Web/Photo/Video:
Josh Nielsen (jniels@illinois.edu | 217-265-8430); Kevin Gomez