1st and 10
by K. Robert Wendel

Since ancient times, elaborate and complicated coliseums have been built to meet the need for spectacle.

The need for spectacle hasn't changed, but the building methods for modern coliseums have, and the new Cardinals Multipurpose Stadium in the suburban Phoenix city of Glendale, is an excellent example.

The $355 million stadium is the first in North America to feature a roll-out playing field.
The field sits under the largest supertrusses in the country, with two Brunel trusses spanning 700 ft. When the two trusses are placed on top of the 172-ft.-tall super columns, it will be one of the largest jacking jobs in history at 1,800 tons each.

And people around the world are paying attention.

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"The project has attracted world-wide attention from Russia to Australia," said design architect Peter Eisenman of New York City-based Peter Eisenman Architects PC. "One of the biggest plusses is that the Cardinals management has insisted and maintained its belief in wanting a world-class piece of architecture."

The 1.6-million-gross-sq.-ft. stadium features a variety of seating plans, plus 88 luxury skyboxes. The south-side seating of the field can be moved for concert events, and other seating configurations are possible. The stadium can seat 37,000 fans for basketball, with a center stage configuration handling 75,000 patrons. For the college football Fiesta Bowl, there are 72,900 seats available. Regular Cardinals game seating is 67,000.

"Making the design vision a reality has been an extraordinary challenge," said HOK's Jack Boyle. "But this is clearly an extraordinary building."

There are three concourses wrapping around the bowl, with concourse amenities sitting on a 25-in.-thick concrete waffle slab. For easier circulation and customer convenience, designs call for wide concourses, and plenty of restrooms and concession points-of-sale. The stadium is aligned along a slight northwest-to-southeast axis to offer the maximum sun exposure for the grass field and maximum shade for stadium patrons.

"There are enough amenities, but you are not overwhelmed with amenities," Eisenman said. "The challenge is how to move people efficiently but with a sense of spectacle and occasion, through signage and way-finding."

Onsite parking will accommodate 16,000 cars. Offsite parking for an additional 6,000 cars is available at the nearby National Hockey League Coyotes Arena, and another 6,000 are available within a mile of the 161-acre site. The project is owned by the Arizona Tourism and Sports Authority.

The project is a hard-bid, design-build job on a very fast track.

"Sometimes it's design-build and sometimes it's build-design," said Jim Garrison, construction manager for general contractor Hunt Construction Group of Phoenix. "It's going to be an impressive stadium once it's done."

A Long and Winding Road

It's been a long and bumpy road for the NFL team and its plans for a new stadium. Originally planned for Tempe in 2000, the project became a case of musical stadiums. The proposed site moved from Tempe to other locations, then back to Tempe. Foundation work started briefly before it was stopped due to concerns from the FAA and Sky Harbor International Airport over airplane landing paths.

Designs changed to fit the different sites.

"We originally started out with an open roof slot at the Tempe location," said Dean Purdy, a principal at TLCP Structural Engineers in Phoenix. "When we relocated and the design was modified, we still wanted to use the same concept because the steel had already been purchased."

Mass excavation at the Glendale site finally started in July. Hunt Construction has until August 2006 to finish the stadium. Peter Eisenman Architects and Kansas City, Mo.-based HOK Sport + Venue + Event are sharing architectural duties.

Crews from Kiewit Western Co. of Phoenix excavated more than 800,000 cu. yds. of earth to create a 156,000-sq.-ft. bowl 26-ft. below grade. Roughly 300,000 cu. yds. are being used for the Maryland Avenue overpass and the remaining amount will be used for the stadium.

The bowl's 20-in. concrete waffle slab will have a utility grid so the stadium can host various events such as trade and consumer shows, conventions, concerts, motor sports and rodeos.

Cannon and Wendt Electric of Phoenix is installing six, double-end stations totaling 24,000 amps at 480 volts to energize the facility, which will have more than 10,000 light fixtures.

"To get power to the field and get the field out of the building is on a fairly aggressive schedule," said David Fagen, vice president of Cannon and Wendt Electric.

A natural grass playing field will sit in a 1-ft.-deep, 12-million-lb. steel tray, 234-ft. wide by 400-ft. long. The tray rides on stainless steel wheels traveling on 8-in. slab-embedded steel rails installed 20-ft. on center.

Powered by small electric motors, the 2-acre field will take 45 minutes to move and is the first of its kind in North America. The grass field remains outside the stadium until game day, which will allow the grass a maximum amount of sunshine.

Cardinals officials said the roll-out field saves $50 million in costs because it is more economical to move the field than having the entire roof retract to allow the necessary sunshine to reach the grass.

The roof has two large retractable panels that uncover the entire playing field while providing maximum shading for fans. The roof can be closed and the facility air-conditioned in the hot months, while the roof can be opened to take advantage of the Valley's climate in cooler months.

The Phoenix office of TD Industries is the mechanical contractor. The firm will install six chiller units totaling 75,000 tons of conditioned air. Electric heating is also provided.

"The Cardinals wanted to play on real grass and they have gone to great lengths to do that," Eisenman said. "They didn't want to be a dome team. They wanted to give their players the advantage of playing on the same type of grass they practice on."

Eisenman said he took the inspiration for the stadium's design from the landscape of Arizona. The design gradually evolved with each site change, morphing from a Native American theme to a vegetation theme.

Evoking a barrel cactus, the 25-acre stadium is clad in an insulated metal panel system manufactured by Crown Core of Chicago. The fields of metal panel are broken up by 125-ft. high and 10 to 25-ft. wide curtain-wall systems that allow natural light into the concourses.

Largest Clear Span in North America

The Brunel trusses are striking design elements as well as engineering masterpieces, at 700 ft. long, 1,800 tons and nearly 100 ft. tall at the thickest point.
Shaped like airplane wings, the two Belgium-made, grade-65 steel trusses will sit on four massive concrete super columns 172-ft. above the field.

Phoenix-based Schuff Steel Co. will begin assembling the super trusses in August. Jacking the trusses into place will start in February.

"One of the most interesting features of this project is the erection, because rather than using a traditional shoring type of construction, we are using a lift," said Ed Carroll, a Schuff Steel senior project manager. "We will be putting lifting towers on the super trusses and lifting the trusses with cables to the bearing points."

The trusses are similar to bridge trusses and are named after Isambrand Kingdom Brunel, a 19th Century British railroad engineer.

"It's a very efficient design," said Joe Ales, a principal and project engineer with structural engineer Walter P. Moore's Tampa, Fla. office. "For the retractable panels running up and down the middle, you need some heavy support, and the only way to get that is with super trusses."

Secondary trusses span from 605 square stadium perimeter columns to panel points on the top chord of the super truss every 60 ft., creating a gird.

"Contractors like square columns because it is easier to tie into other framing systems," Boyle said.

Areas that aren't covered by the retractable roof get a translucent fabric.

"It's a fabric roofing system that will look like a halo once it's installed," said Charlie Prewitt, a Hunt Construction manager.

The amount of materials on the project is staggering. Crews from Kiewit Western will pour nearly 100,000 cu. yds. of high-strength concrete ranging from 3,000 psi to 7,000 psi. Phoenix-based Rinker Materials is the concrete supplier.

There are a total of 8,300 tons of structural steel joists and deck and 12,000 tons of rebar, some of it as large as No. 14.

Most of the project is cast-in-place concrete, although the seating risers are precast.

Constructability was a key issue for engineers. On the concourses, large threaded bolts were used to anchor the forming system to the deck before pouring the cantilevered cast-in-place rakers. Similarly, on the cast-in-place columns, boltholes were left to attach the next concourse level forms to the columns so crews could pour concrete.

"This is such a heavily engineered job that you have to check every element," said Steve Caniglia, Kiewit Western project manager. "Another big point of concentration, with such a large craft force, is safety."

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