Public invited to tour Reser Stadium, Health Center, Welcome Center at Aug. 19 open house

CORVALLIS, Ore. – The public is invited to tour Oregon State University’s completed Reser Stadium during an open house Aug. 19.

Construction is now finished on the $160.5 million rebuild, which includes a student Welcome Center and a 30,000-square-foot Health Center that’s a partnership between Corvallis-based provider Samaritan Health Services and OSU’s Student Health Services. Donors have contributed more than $90 million to the Completing Reser Stadium effort.

“Our 2023 football schedule is set and we have six opportunities at home to show all of college football what we already know, that Beaver Nation, like our student athletes, always shows up,” said Scott Barnes, vice president and director of OSU Athletics.

Oregon State Athletics and Hoffman Construction Company, which led the project, are hosting the open house from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

OSU Athletics staff will be on hand with promotional items and to answer questions about ticketing and other aspects of the new stadium. Beaver student-athletes will be in attendance to meet fans and sign autographs, inflatables will be set up on the field, and concession stands will be open.

Visitors will also notice a new art installation near the stadium and Welcome Center entrance, part of Oregon’s Percent for Art program. Artist Ben Butler created “INGRAINED” to appear from a distance as a single slab of wood, but a closer look reveals it is made up of thousands of small, cross-laminated sections of reclaimed timber. OSU College of Forestry researchers consulted on its construction.

At the Health Center, situated at the stadium’s southeast corner, visitors can enter the first-floor lobby and check out artwork inspired by microscopic studies of the body’s systems and patterns. OSU Student Health and Samaritan professionals will be available to answer questions, and snacks and free swag will be available.

The Health Center is designed to create new opportunities to expand student health care and builds on an existing partnership between Student Health Services and Samaritan to better serve the university and Corvallis communities.

Samaritan offers primary care and SamCare Express services to the public at the new facility, while OSU Student Health continues its mission of holistic, student-centered care after relocating from Plageman Hall, a nearly 100-year-old building. SamCare Express will operate during the open house.

At the Welcome Center, visitors can check out interactive displays and see where prospective student campus visits will begin starting this fall. Those attending the open house can also view pieces of OSU history like the mammoth bones discovered during Reser Stadium excavation work in 2016 and replicas of the Nobel Prize medals awarded to Linus Pauling.

Formerly housed at the Beth Ray Center for Academic Support, during the 2022-23 academic year the Welcome Center helped more than 30,000 visitors engage with campus.