Curtis Culwell Center – Garland, Texas
The Curtis Culwell Center is a beautiful state-of-the-art multi-purpose facility, located near George Bush Turnpike between North Garland Avenue and Brand Road directly adjacent to Naaman Forest High School, and the Gilbreath-Reed Career and Technical Center. The senior management team has over 100 years of combined industry experience to help promoters and planners create a successful event.
The Curtis Culwell Center, boasting over 190,000 square feet of space, welcomes district and community events of all kinds including graduations, sports events, concerts, teacher in-service activities, national and regional tournaments, banquets, weddings, corporate training, meetings, trade shows, world-renowned performances, and a myriad of other public and private events. Senior management at the center has over 20 years of experience in similar venues. The facility hosts several hundred events a year.
History
The Curtis Culwell Center (formerly the Garland Special Events Center) is a 6,860-seat arena and conference center in Garland, Texas. It opened in 2005 and was designed by HKS, Inc. and constructed at a cost of $31.5 million by Lee Lewis Construction with engineering by Walter P. Moore, Blum Consulting Engineers, and RLK Engineers Inc. The arena is the property of the Garland Independent School District (GISD).
It is used by the men’s basketball teams of the GISD. It was also used as a venue by the SMU Mustangs men’s and women’s basketball teams while the Moody Coliseum was being renovated. It also hosts the UIL state girls’ volleyball championships.
On May 3, 2015, two men carried out an attack during an art exhibition featuring works depicting Muhammad. Both men were killed at the scene. One Garland ISD officer was wounded in the exchange of gunfire.
The arena has hosted multiple events from the professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW). These include the December 11, 2019 episode of AEW Dynamite, and the Dynamite special episodes Fyter Fest and Winter is Coming (both 2021). The latter event also included tapings for that week’s episode of AEW Rampage.
It is also scheduled to host Supercard of Honor XIV on April 1, 2022, for Ring of Honor, the first card since the reboot of the professional wrestling promotion.
Event spaces
The arena is complete with 6,860 fixed bowl seats and 17,085 sq. ft. of arena floor space. The arena can be configured for both a full-house and half-house set-up. A 13’ x 22’ big-screen HD video board is located on the South arena wall.
The upper concourse of the arena has over 18,000 square feet of area with windows all along the north wall giving patrons a spectacular panoramic view and includes 6 arena view suites as well as two large hospitality suites. The hospitality suites contain over 3,200 square feet of space overlooking the arena floor atop the end center of the upper concourse. Large parties can enjoy their own private catered function while enjoying an event in an elegant glass-enclosed room complete with monitors, as well as cable TV, internet, and voice connections.
The conference center, containing over 18,000 square feet of configurable space, includes the grand ballroom, two large meeting rooms of over 1,000 square feet each, and a lecture hall.
The grand ballroom has over 8,000 square feet and can seat over 400 for banquets. This space can be split into as many as seven different rooms. State-of-the-art technology includes large hideaway screens as well as three drop-down projectors in the ceiling and ample electrical, telephone, data, and internet drops.
The lecture hall is designed to accommodate over 120 guests in a tiered theater-seating format. The seats are equipped with permanent classroom tables that are wired for voice or data access. A permanent projection screen and overhead LCD projector are available to users of this space. The configuration of this space is appropriate for training sessions, lectures, presentations, meetings, and other similar functions.