Gerard Mildenberger
Professor Knutson
CON 101
12/11/2012
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University of Phoenix Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium that is located in Glendale,
Arizona. The stadium has the ability to hold over sixty thousand people for anything from soccer games to football games to large conventions. It opened on August 1, 2006 and quickly grasped media attention with its unique amenities that featured a retractable roof operating on an incline and a field that has the ability to roll in and out of the stadium. The stadium has been voted a top ten sports venue in the United States by Sports Illustrated.
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University of Phoenix Stadium is a multipurpose football stadium built in the heart of
Glendale, Arizona. Hunt Construction Group, the contractors hired to complete the project, broke ground on the stadium in 2003 and it was completed in 2006 with a total cost of $455 million
(University of Phoenix Stadium Sets New Standards). It was designed with the intent of being one of the most technologically advanced and innovative stadiums in the world. With its 21st century design, retractable roof, and roll in grass field, the designers and contractors definitely accomplished their goal.
Constructing University of Phoenix Stadium was a massive project that changed the quiet and still underdeveloped neighborhood, at the time, Glendale. The City of Glendale, Cardinals,
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and the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority came together and invested the money that would eventually be the home of Arizona's professional football franchise, the Arizona Cardinals, along with many other events such as the BCS National Championship, Fiesta Bowl, Superbowl XLII, and Wrestlemania XXVI. They chose land next to the already existent Jobing.com arena, home of the Phoenix Coyotes, as the perfect spot to build the new mega arena. After the twenty-five acres of land was purchased for $17.8 million, the contractors broke ground on April 12, 2003 and began the three year process of building (University of Phoenix Sets New Standards).
Glendale before University of Phoenix Stadium was a small suburban city which was the site of a scarce population. The real estate market at the time was skyrocketing especially in
Arizona which was seeing an all-time high in home sales. The valley was flourishing and it was of no surprise that the City of Glendale would decide to splurge on a state of the art facility that would add to the value and appeal of Glendale. Along with that, the Arizona Cardinals would finally have their own stadium to play in after playing in Sun Devil Stadium since 1988 (Arizona
Cardinals Franchise History). The stadium at the time of inception was coming right after
Jobing.com arena had opened in 2003 in Westgate City Center (City of Glendale). University of
Phoenix Stadium would be an addition to the Glendale Sports and Entertainment District development plan which has the intent of spurring growth in the area (City of Glendale).
The development plan definitely accomplished its goal because soon after the opening of the stadium, the City of Glendale started to see an increase in its population. In 2006, when
University of Phoenix Stadium opened, the real estate market hit its absolute high before crashing a year later in 2007. The crash affected everyone in the valley especially homeowners
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who put little down for their homes and took out loans with banks that had overextended beyond their means of giving. The nation a whole was also affected by this downturn in the economy that is still affecting some people five years later. Glendale, though, continued to rise despite the terrible economy. Today the city has over two hundred and sixty thousand people and Westgate
City Center has expanded almost three fold (City of Glendale).
University of Phoenix Stadium also proved to be beneficial for the other investors involved. The Arizona Cardinals finally had a place to call their own, not having to share Sun
Devil Stadium anymore. The Cardinals had usually had an away heavy schedule to start off their season due to the fact that they played outdoors and at the start of the NFL season the temperature in Arizona is still in the three figure range. University of Phoenix Stadium being air conditioned made it possible for the players to play in a comfortable climate and it allowed the fans to watch without worrying about possibly collapsing from heat stroke.
The Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority also benefited from this stadium. They gave their NFL team their own stadium to finally play in. Along with that they could attract attention to Glendale where the Phoenix Coyotes had playing since 2003. Since the move to Glendale the
Coyotes suffered a decline in attendance but with Arizona’s major football franchise moving to
Glendale too it brought some popularity back to the forgotten hockey franchise.
When designing the building, architects and developers got together to try and make a structure that would complement the landscape and culture of Arizona. The outer form of the building is spiraled and segmented inspired by barrel cacti found in the Arizona desert (Design
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Solutions). According to Peter Eisenman, the lead design architect for University of Phoenix
Stadium, inspiration for the design also came from, "Native American symbols, such as the coiled snake and the
Mandala" (Design
Solutions). There are twenty one vertical slots on the exterior wall of the stadium to let natural light in during the day and to emit light from the stadium at night (Gannon 23). After incorporating culture into the design, it was also important to integrate the technology that would make this stadium stick out from the others in the country. That is why the retractable roof and roll in grass field became a must in the design. The building was made with the idea that it would be a multipurpose facility and not just a football stadium which is why versatility and compatibility were very important when designing this building.
Hunt Construction Group is a large contractor that was given the task of designing and building the mega stadium. Luckily Hunt has a long resume of large state of the art buildings, arenas and stadiums making them a perfect candidate for this build. They are responsible for structures such as the Barclays Center, Amway Center, Lucas Oil Stadium, and Marlins Park
(Hunt Construction).
While Hunt Construction took the lead in building this project, like with all major projects, aspects of the build were sub contracted to other companies. Schuff Steel, a Phoenix
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based company was assigned the task of assembling the trusses that would be the main structure of the roof. The retractable part of the roof was made by Uni-System, a mechanical contractor that builds retractable roofs along with other mechanized things for large venues. By subcontracting in order to bring in specialists for the different tasks of the job, efficiency and safety is enhanced on the worksite.
The construction for the stadium including the method, materials, and tools used were extremely modernistic because it was built in 2006. Cranes were the biggest and most important tool for the project because of the massive roof that needed to be erected along with the trusses to hold it in place. Also the large metal panels that surround the exterior of the building required a crane to be set into place.
Besides the super cranes and cranes that were used, vehicles were needed to transport all of the materials and the labor to the job site. The huge steel trusses that hold up the roof were assembled on site but all of the steel needed had to be brought to the job site. Another major material that were used was the Formawall Dimension Series metal panels for the exterior of the building which allows the walls to bend back and form part of the roof along with shed water when it rains (Design Solutions). The roof is made of a special “Bird-Air” fabric which allows the stadium to have an open and airy feeling even when the roof is closed (Stadium Statistics).
Concrete was by far the most needed material for construction seeing as it was the support for the trusses along with the material used for all of the flooring and walls throughout the concourses and the rest of the structure.
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This stadium, though it is acknowledged for its design and technology, it is especially well known for its retractable roof. There are other arenas and stadiums such as Chase Field which is also located in Arizona that have retractable roofs, but none of them operate on an incline. Because of the way the building was designed with the side panels continuing into the roof, it was necessary for a curve to exist on the overall design of the building. Therefore in order to accommodate both the exterior design wishes, and the wanting of the convertible roof, HOK
Sport, who designed the first retractable roof for Reliant Stadium was brought in to design the roof (Constructing a Convertible).
In order to make the retractable roof possible, the first thing that needed to be accomplished was figuring out how to support the seven hundred foot long, eighty seven feet deep Brunel trusses that support the roof (Constructing a Convertible). To do this, the design team in collaboration with the contractors decided to use four supercolumns which measured one hundred and seventy-one feet tall and seventeen and a half feet wide. Using the supercolumns in
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the design as opposed to normal columns cleared up the issue of having columns in the way of fans who were trying to watch the game. The supercolumns were put ninety feet deep in order to properly secure them for supporting the massive weight of the roof. While the columns were being put into place Schuff Steel, the Phoenix-based company sub contracted to the build the trusses, came in and assembled the trusses on-site and on the ground which they felt was a safer option than trying to assemble them on top of the columns (Constructing a Convertible). Once all of the columns were put into place, cranes lifted the five thousand four hundred and twenty five pound roof, which consisted on the two trusses and the structure in between them (University of
Phoenix Stadium Sets New Standards). To lift the roof into place from the ground to their resting place on top of the supercolumns took three and a half hours.
After erecting the support structure for the retracting panels of the roof, the next phase in construction was placing the retractable panels on the structure along with the motor that would move them. Each of the panels weighs about five hundred and fifty tons which was no easy task to figure out how to move, especially on the inclined roof. To figure out how to make the roof actually retractable Uni-Systems, a mechanization contractor that has built retractable roofs for other stadiums and arenas such as Miller Park, Reliant Stadium, was brought in (Constructing a
Convertible). Even though Uni-Systems had built retractable roofs in the past, this one would be drastically different because of the changes that would be made in order to deal with the incline which is as much as fourteen degrees on some points of the structure (Constructing a
Convertible). A more powerful motor along with enhanced power wheels was needed to move the roof along the parallel tracks placed on the east and west sides of the structure and after completion each panel had four two-wheeled carriers on each side of it to move it along the inclination and allow the roof to open in about fifteen minutes (Constructing a Convertible).
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Another signature feature of University of Phoenix Stadium is its field. The field which is big enough to host football games as well as soccer games is capable of rolling out of the stadium when not needed. The ninety four thousand square feet of field sits in an 18.9 million pound tray that spends all of its time outside in the sun except for days when there is a football or soccer game (Stadium Statistics). This ingenious idea accomplishes a multitude of things such as allow the field to always receive natural sunlight. Along with that, since the field spends most of its time outdoors, the humidity inside the building due to the moisture in the grass is eliminated. This ability also allows the stadium to be truly versatile and compatible to any kind of event. Such as for a basketball game, hockey game or even a convention, the grass can be wheeled out giving staff access to the full event floor. Since the grass is outside for these events no damage is done to it leaving it in perfect condition year round. In order to make the extremely heavy field travel the necessary seven hundred and forty-one feet, the tray has five hundred and forty-six wheels located underneath it with seventy-six of them being powered by a one horsepower motor
(Stadium Statistics). This whole setup allows the field to move at eleven and a half feet per minute making the full trip into or out of the stadium in about seventy-five minutes (Stadium
Statistics). The ability of the field to be removed or added whenever needed is just another thing that makes University of Phoenix Stadium one of the top sports venues in the country.
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Upon completion the stadium became a humongous gem in the west valley. The structure was built with the intention of being able to facilitate a multitude of events and sports which is exactly what the designers and contractors accomplished. The final product has six levels: the field, main concourse, club level, suite level, upper concourse, and the mechanical level. In total the stadium has sixty three thousand four hundred permanent seats and is expandable to seventy two thousand two hundred seats (Surhone 12). The club level in between the lower bowl and the upper bowl of the stadium features eighty-eight luxury lofts, seven thousand four hundred club seats, and two thirty-nine thousand square foot club lounges (Stadium Statistics). In order to make the concrete stadium look a little more welcoming on the inside, murals, logos and oversized photos were put up around the stadium. Each level has its own mural representing one of Arizona’s environmental attractions (Stadium Statistics).
University of Phoenix Stadium being completed in 2006 is a very recent build. The stadium has state of the art technology and design principles already implemented. Examples of this would be the retractable roof and the mobile field. Therefore changes that would be made would be very limited.
The biggest and possibly only downfall with the stadium is its location. Location is a crucial part in construction because it factors in to the value and popularity of the structure being
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built. Originally all of the major sports teams in Arizona were centrally located with the Suns,
Diamondbacks and Coyotes being located in downtown Phoenix and the Cardinals minutes away from them in Tempe. The Coyotes made the first move to Glendale and as a result saw a massive decline in attendance. Even though the team was doing well and making playoff appearances, people in the valley seemed to forget about the franchise. In an effort to make Glendale more of a sports destination, the project executives decided to put the new stadium there, but while attendance is decent for events such as the Cardinals games, more people would attend if it was more centrally located. Putting the massive multi-functional stadium in downtown Phoenix near
Chase Field and US Airways Center would be the ideal situation. This change would definitely make a rise in attendance and revenue for the events hosted there because people from the east valley could attend Cardinals games, for example, without travelling over an hour to get there.
A big focus in the construction field today is making structures sustainable and ecofriendly. While University of Phoenix Stadium is known for some of the technology implemented into its design, there wasn’t much effort put into making it a true environmentally friendly building. Making the stadium “green” would start before construction even begins with ordering recycled materials such as recycled steel. Making sure that efficient lighting and appliances are used throughout the facility in the construction phase along with being permanently implemented post construction would help reduce energy costs along with emissions. Finally by using products such as waterless urinals, low-flow water fixtures and high efficiency irrigation systems, the water consumption would be cut down more than twenty-five percent (Sustainable Stadiums). Making this stadium friendlier to the environment is the only to make this structure better and more efficient than it already is.
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