More than 40 years after the passing of Title IX legislation, ESPN is capturing watershed moments in women’s sports in a new display unveiled yesterday on ESPN’s Bristol, Conn. campus. The wall dedication was a fitting part of the festivities leading up to the first-ever primetime telecast of the WNBA Draft, held in Studio E and aired on ESPN2, ESPNU and WatchESPN.

The 560-square foot wall (just down the hall from ESPN’s newsroom) features iconic moments in women’s sports history, from Billie Jean King’s triumph in the Battle of the Sexes tennis match against Bobby Riggs in 1973, to ESPN’s pioneering female sports broadcasters of the 1970′s and 80′s, to “The Year of Women’s Soccer” in 1999.

The display also highlights key moments in ESPN women’s sports coverage. Among the milestones captured: the first telecast of a WNBA game in 1996 and coverage of the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals, which earned the highest TV ratings ever for a soccer match on ESPN. A robust collection of stats and information depicting the growth of women’s participation in sports — both as passionate athletes and fans — is also on display.

“The wall is a celebration of how far women have come in sports as athletes, fans and broadcasters,” says Laura Gentile, Vice President of espnW.

“We want to show employees and visitors that ESPN has always been on the cutting-edge when it comes to women in sports as well as to pay tribute to the dynamic growth of women’s sports over the last 40 years.”

The idea for the wall came from ESPN’s facilities team, who decided to use the space to highlight the growth of women’s sports following the company’s commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Title IX last year.

“It was an incredible team effort between facilities and the espnW team,” says Rick Abbott, Vice President of Facility Operations.

“Laura and her team set the vision for the design, content and branding for the wall and then it became our job to help them bring that vision to life.”

Below is a time-lapse video of the construction of the espnW display. Above, there is gallery of photos from the dedication of the espnW wall and the WNBA Draft.

But it’s a serious operation, our West Coast production facility. Located in LA Live next to the Staples Center, its studios generate the SportsCenter 1 a.m. ET show for “the wheel” (which means it is the show that gets rebroadcast).

It’s also where the new NACION show emanates from (the Spanish language equivalent of SportsNation).

The bureau cams in this facility support many other shows, including Around the Horn, Audibles, and The Next Round with Jim Beam.

They are also the primary point of broadcast for The Longhorn Network and our Caribbean network.

It’s a busy place.

Perhaps even more critically however, it serves as the backup for the entire Bristol broadcast center should anything ever happen to it…like a hurricane or an earthquake. (Let’s not mention any names, but she was an unwelcome East Coast guest and rhymes with “styrene.”)

“Our LA production center needs to be able to assume transmission for all our networks within seconds of a cataclysmic event,” said Judi Cordray, who is the one in charge of the entire operation.

No pressure, Judi.

When this facility opened in 2009, it drew a large portion of its personnel from the Bristol, Conn. headquarters.

To make them feel at home, we designed several murals that spoke of the home soil. This mural features some of the best-loved archival images of the campus and the original SportsCenter.

In this new setting, these familiar pictures take on a whole new meaning and inspire some pride in how we’ve grown.

Another oldie but goodie is the This is SportsCenter mural, which shows frames from each of the award-winning promos from over the years.

It’s a crowd-pleaser that still prompts viewers to quote their favorite lines.

In the dramatic stairwells of the building (which is a modern wonder in itself), we feature giant blow-ups of the SportsCenter graphics package, called Goliath, which is instantly recognizable for its association with our flagship program. It’s almost like you walk inside the SportsCenter opening sequence. 

The lobby is a cool area, with sandstone and slate.

Here we feature out brands behind the security desk, and invite visitors to test their sports knowledge on the What Color Do You Bleed? interactive sculpture. Clues written on the moving colored panels correspond to popular teams from all sports.

We have a several more exciting opportunities to do graphics for our West Coast crew.

Now, where are my sunglasses?

Front Row wandered the Bristol campus asking employees which sporting event they would most like to have front row seats for — regardless of era.

After hearing some of the answers, it’s no surprise that these people work for ESPN.

It serves as a nice reminder that many of us are fans first.

Check out the video to see what we mean.

What front row seats would you cherish most? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Working in these spaces is easy because the walls are fresh and the occupants haven’t moved in yet.

Meanwhile, the older buildings need love, too; they are very active, busy places that have a lived-in feeling, and usually have had numerous renovations.  

Prime example:  The first building on campus was constructed in 1979.

At the time it was just called “ESPN” because that was the only building other than a couple of production trailers.

This structure finally became Building 1 when Building 2 opened in 1981.

History was made in here: The first SportsCenter emanated from the studio in Building 1 on Sept. 7, 1979.

Legends abound from those pioneering days, like the robotic camera operated with a Stanley garage door opener.

Today in Building 1, Production Operations Network Control operates eight control rooms that feed ESPN networks to the various regions throughout the world, transmitting  primarily in Spanish and also in English.

The total footprint of this network control area is only about 40 feet by 50 feet.

It’s loaded with equipment and workstations, and peopled by 8 different teams working round the clock.

In February 2011,  I met with folks from Production Operations who asked me to help them brighten up their space because its hospital-scrubs-green walls made it feel “like an emergency room.”

Indeed.

The new and improved Production Operations took almost four months to complete, during which time various members expressed the importance of making their work place more visually compelling because of the intensity of their work.

The network control area is very close quarters, so the strategy was to keep the graphics simple.  

We needed to make a strong visual statement, but not overwhelm the people who spend lots of time there.

Mauricio Sanchez, senior designer in Marketing, created a visual system that relies primarily on a deep blue color in the main room, with delicate sweeping lines and subtle glowing shapes and textures.

A different color accent is used within each of the eight control rooms, and each room features the fans and the athletes who are popular in a particular region.

The final effect is like a breath of fresh air that also makes the space feel larger.

It might sound a little corny, but to me the expansive spirit of the graphics sort of captures the idea of sports energy expanding out into the world; which is kind of fun, especially considering the humble history of Building 1.

ESPN The Magazine relocated its main operations from NYC to the Bristol headquarters in early June.

Its new home is Building 0. Affectionately known by its former occupants as :00 or “the buzzer-beater,” Building 0 was completely remodeled and transformed into an open, loft-like space reminiscent of the 34th Street site that Magazine just left.

The new environment was created to enhance the creative culture that is The Magazine, and help its newly-transplanted staff feel at home.

A bright and expansive new mural overlooks the entire Magazine staff from the rear wall of the space.

Sized at 30 feet wide and 8 feet high, this piece of art presents a whole new dynamic world of sports, featuring the abstracted likenesses of Lionel Messi, Travis Pastrana, Serena Williams, Adrian Peterson, Kobe Bryant, Tim Lincecum, Sidney Crosby, Lindsey Vonn, Tiger Woods, Chuck Liddell and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

The work employs a highly refined print process using a flatbed printer on brushed aluminum panels.

The specific order of the inks and their transparency properties is what gives it a luminous effect.

The print techniques were painstaking pioneered by the mural’s creator, Kirk Bauer.

In developing the imagery, Kirk uses a meticulous process of reduction and simplification of photographic information, layering and emphasizing linear elements to draw out underlying rhythms within the image. Unlike much of his other work, this mural is full of vibrant color and within this large space, feels almost like stained glass.

Kirk is an artist who has worked in The Magazine’s production department since 1998. His own artwork evolved separately, though greatly influenced by the aesthetic sense he developed in working with photography and with other art professionals there.

The fact that Kirk is soon leaving The Magazine to pursue his art career full time — he has shows coming up in Taipei, Rio De Janeiro and domestically — is sad for ESPN, but very exciting.

“Being asked to create a mural for the new ESPN Magazine office was a real honor and just another example of the great opportunities The Magazine has given me over the past 13 years.

“And leaving a piece of my art in the new office, well, I can’t think of a better way to say goodbye.”

In the close-knit Magazine family, Kirk will be deeply missed. But his presence will be felt every day through his generous artistic contribution at Building 0.

Kirk, from your friends at ESPN: Best of luck in all your creative adventures! Thanks to you, Building 0 will surely be a new stop on the Bristol Campus Tour.

ESPN Radio is a colorful world within ESPN. You have our nationally syndicated shows and talent, four ESPN-owned and operated stations (New York, Chicago, Dallas and LA), each with its own local hosts, programming lineup, and local team affiliations. Then there are all the radio affiliates, 472 of them and 41 ESPN Deportes stations scattered throughout the country (and more launching every week).  And finally, there are the digital apps and local.com sites.

The new studios for ESPN Radio (or ESPN AUDIO, as the business side is called) located on ESPN’s Bristol campus, needed artwork that celebrates all of that diversity, so the opportunity came from Robyn Remick and Kevin Plumb to build out several murals.  The challenge was to represent all of the different brand identities, hosts and alliances very specifically. The other requirement—and they were very up front about this—was that it also must be able to be updated frequently. Logos, call letters, photos, everything is subject to change as that business rapidly evolves.

In general, whenever we install artwork, we install it to last. So changing out graphic elements is always a risk. On our O&O murals, we came up with a system that would allow us maximum flexibility: a large acrylic panel carries the vinyl logos for each market, a grid-like background allows us to cover and switch out squares as programming changes. The entire look itself is inspired by the new digital technology and audio “levels” indicators. Our designer, Matt Juskiewicz, wove all the various features into a complete tapestry that also picks up the beautiful cityscape treatments of the stations’ local web sites. It all looks very effortless. Barb Blake, who tirelessly collected and edited all the imagery and logos for the murals, admits it took a little effort.

The mural location consists of two sets of walls facing each other in a fairly narrow hallway. We didn’t want it to feel like you’re in a tunnel with artwork on both sides, so we tried to stagger the murals, which are 9 feet wide each. And it turned out to be a good thing that they are made up of many smaller graphic elements, because they are viewed at close-range. We’re very happy with this first phase of the design of ESPN Radio’s home. There are more graphics in the works which will talk about the digital platforms and radio apps. We will also design the 3^rd floor conference room. Not to give too much away, it is a narrow room with windows all along one side, so it feels kind of like a press box. This will be a fun project because we can introduce some of the colorful history of “old school” radio, and also inject the excitement of our live play-by-play programming. We will even do a soundscape you can listen to while waiting for your meeting to start.

This location, next to the 22-dish teleport, was to become the future home of several technology groups and Creative Services, among others.

It would also house the “Super Conference Room,” one of the most sophisticated teleconference rooms in the state of Connecticut. Building 13 was also designed to meet the US Green Building Council’s LEED Certification criteria.

Folks on the Facilities Campus Branding Committee thought this ambitious new building should be given a theme around which to plan the décor.

Obviously, what richer theme could you ever explore than the role of myth and superstition in sports?

Our team of researchers unearthed 20 pages of curses, myths and superstition from across the Web, and looked back at SportsCenter and ESPN The Magazine features from over the years.

Several ESPN staff writers also contributed wonderful essays that looked at No. 13 in sports or in their personal lives.

The problem was how to curate from such a vast topic. Everything was so colorful and bizarre, from Wade Boggs eating chicken before each game, to the Madden Curse, to playoff beards. Culling this down and making sense of it was like trying to drink from a fire hose, only weirder.

In many creative projects, restraints and limitations often help to generate focus.

In this case, we learned through informal feedback that our theme of sports superstition and ritual actually was making some of the future residents of the building uncomfortable.

This was very important information and it helped us to choose a path through the material which was upbeat and humorous rather than dark and gloomy. We decided to avoid scary curses and jinxes, and instead focus on “lucky 13.”

We celebrated athletes who wore No. 13 and had fabulous careers. We talked about the often very fine line between a superstition (a baseball player who avoids stepping on the foul line) and personal rituals that help a player achieve consistency and peak concentration.

Chris McClure, Creative Director in Marketing Creative Services, devised the visual logic and typography for the entire exhibition, placing most of the focus in the third-floor main lobby entrance.

The display all together is a colorful photo- and icon-driven gallery of “conversations” about No. 13.

We worked in as wide a variety of media as possible, so we have a backlit box with photos and text, an oversize essay that uses dimensional icons scattered within the text, an animation that plays across four HD monitors, and two large 3-D posters portraying the epic fight between Joe Walcott and Rocky Marciano — “a man who made his own luck.”

We also tricked out a break room so it looks like the wine bar where Bill Simmons worked when he was just out of college as “Server 13.”

The official opening of Building 13 was April 14, 2010. The residents of Building 13 were delighted and energized by the artwork.

They say “it really feels like ESPN” and makes them proud. We have many more creative ideas for Building 13, but we have to see where fate takes us….

*The Philadelphia Flyers believed an anthem singer was their good luck charm. When the late Kate Smith sang “God Bless America” before a Flyers game, either in person or on video, the Flyers have posted an amazing 62-13-3 record.

They are usually not disappointed (at least when it comes to the athletes–mascots are only here for special occasions).

In terms of the facilities and décor, we always try to be outstanding and appeal to visiting sports fans and also to those who work here, the “corporate athletes.”

With that spirit, we went about giving our conference rooms throughout the campus sport-specific themes.

In the last few years, we’ve tricked out the football conference room, the basketball conference room, the golf conference room, and the 2010 FIFA World Cup Conference room.

Rick Abbott, VP of Global Security and Facilities Operations emphasizes: “We want our meetings to have a fun backdrop that reflects who we are and what we’re about.”

In the case of the World Cup room, the goal is also educational. To help employees better understand the mind of the devoted soccer fan, we took quotes from passionate fans that express why they love European football.

We placed these quotes around the edge of the conference table, and in the middle of the table was a world map highlighting the countries that qualified for the World Cup.

The chairs around the table are upholstered with actual team jerseys.

We wanted to help employees choose which team they would root for, so we gave them a spin wheel that offers different ways to find your personal alliance — family heritage?

The first country you travelled to outside the US? There’s a slightly scaled down goal with Tim Howard blocking a shot, and the carpet bears field lines.

Attendees to a meeting held in this space can hold a replica of the World Cup and blow on a vuvuzuela (if they want to emphasize a point).

The football conference room tries to bring in a little history of American football by displaying helmets from the early years of the sport. The chairs are upholstered in referee unis, and the carpet is the color of Astro Turf.

The basketball conference room sports a real polished wood floor, but for the walls, we opted for art that reflects our basketball on-air graphic look.

Above the white boards, there is the famous quote from Jim Valvano, “Don’t Give Up. . .Don’t Ever Give Up! ®

In this room, found in Building 11, in addition to state of the art telecom capabilities, the person at the head of the conference table can take a foul shot.

The golf room features a golf cart coming out of the wall, after it has driven across the dew-covered green.

And the long wall features a beautiful panoramic shot of the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass. When users of this conference room take a coffee break, there’s a putting green and a sand trap so folks can work on their game.

All this is not to say that meetings at ESPN are fun and games.

It’s just that we like to enjoy occasional relief from the intensity of work, and when we look up from our notes and meeting agendas, we remember why we are all there in the first place.

The X Games skywalk project took a very barren section of campus, the walkway between our Digital Production Center and Building 1, and turned it into a multimedia love letter to the X Games.

The skywalk is a dogleg with a ramp at one end, so we created essentially two adjoining sections, one for the Summer Games, and one to represent the Winter Games. We wanted to create a presentation that captures the energy and culture of X Games, where the walls actually feel like they’re floating weightlessly in space.

Each corridor has two monitors showing video and still photography, and at the very bottom of the ramp there is a giant screen that hangs on a truss, very much like an actual X Games event. We used LEDs to backlight some of the walls and to add splashes of color at the ceiling.

Production took almost three weeks, with lots of prepping and head-scratching as far back as August of 2010.

During the installation in March, the corridor had to remain open to traffic. We tried not to make too much noise and keep it pretty neat. A few times people had to squeeze between ladders, but luckily not under any. Lots of Friends and Family tours came through, and we got to be on a first-name basis with the “regulars” that use the hallway.

I’m very proud of all the creative work that was put into this by so many people. It’s the most ambitious campus design project that we’ve done to date.

There are many projects in the pipeline right now. I’ll be camping out in Bristol again soon (I’m from NYC) to rev up other spaces, like the new ESPN AUDIO studios. More on that later.

Where can you find an XBOX 360 and Microsoft Kinect, mini-golf course, a shrine to the Jonas Brothers, a P90x set, and a real WWE championship belt? The office of ESPN.com’s Page 2 senior editor, Lynn Hoppes.

Cubicles dominate the majority of the floor where ESPN.com editors work in Bristol. Many senior staffers have offices with views of ESPN’s campus.

If you peek into Hoppes’ corner office, you’ll typically find him interviewing some of the hottest celebrities in sports, music, TV and film.

ESPN Front Row dropped in on Hoppes after he visited with UFC star Brock Lesnar. We learned a few things about Hoppes’ vast collection — and news that he’s filmed a movie with Hugh Jackman. [Hoppes plays an ESPN reporter in the film "Real Steel" to be released this fall].