Chicago Fire's Stadium
Field Shines As Star Player
by
Paula Widholm Major League Soccer is gaining momentum, and the 20,000-seat
Village of Bridgeview Soccer Stadium under construction for the Chicago Fire marks
the fourth major soccer-specific stadium in the United States.
First was the Columbus Crew Stadium and then The Home Depot Center
for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Next, Pizza Hut Park opened for FC Dallas. Following
Bridgeview's stadium will be one in Denver for the Colorado Rapids and one in
Harrison, N.J., for the MetroStars.
The Village of Bridgeview's $70 million,
415,000-sq.-ft. soccer and entertainment stadium broke ground in November 2004
and is scheduled to open next summer.
Located at 71st Street and Harlem
Avenue, the stadium can be expanded to 28,000 seats. Naming rights for the stadium
have not been finalized.
Southwest suburban Bridgeview is funding the project,
and Anschutz Entertainment Group, parent company of the Chicago Fire, will operate
it.
Leveling the Playing Field While bricks and
mortar have their role, "The field is the top priority - the turf and the
systems that support it," said Dan Harmon, project manager with Chicago-based
Turner Construction, the project's construction manager. "The field is the
feature element, the focus of everything."
That focus affects the
entire construction process. Typically, cranes lift materials from the field throughout
the stadium bowl. However, the extensive underground drainage, aeration, heating
and irrigation systems require that the field be cleared.
"A great
deal of the erecting for the construction will actually be from outside the field,"
Harmon said. At its peak, the project will have seven cranes onsite.
With
more than 90 acres, the site offers plenty of storage. However, bigger, more expensive
cranes will be used to reach over the structure. In some cases, the crane operator
will rely on hand signals and radio communication to set materials from outside
the stadium to the inside.
The field's grass, which is scheduled to be
planted this fall, will consist of durable and cold- and disease-resistant varieties
of Kentucky Blue Grass.
"The soccer community prefers to play on natural
grass, completely flat with no elevation," said Dan Almond, the project's
turf consultant and owner of Littleton, Colo.-based Millennium Sports Technologies
Inc. "It takes a special design to drain properly."
Water will
pass through layers of sand then gravel down to 5,000 lin. ft. of perforated drainage
pipes that feed into a storm drainage system.
For concert events, the turf
can be covered with terraplast, a plastic sheeting, to provide seating on the
field. Multifunction Design Brian Byrne,
project architect in the El Segundo, Calif., office of Birmingham, Mich.-based
Rossetti Associates, said the new stadium is one of the first with a built-in
stage.
Above the stage, at the open end of the horseshoe-shaped stadium,
white structural steel rises to form a canopy roof. A 40-ft. light-emitting-diode
screen for video replay, advertising and the score will hang from this white steel
roof, which cantilevers more than 25 ft. over the field. A winch system allows
for quick removal of the screen for concerts. A concert band's lighting and sound
systems can also be attached to the roof.
Byrne said the permanent stage
should help attract concerts. "By taking out a few sections of seats on the
south end, [stage crews] can rig away and not lose time erecting a new stage every
time there's an event," he added.
During soccer games, the stage will
be used as a party deck for standing-room-only fans or will contain removable
seating. "It's only 6 ft. off the field level and offers a great view of
the goal," Byrne said.
The stadium features 46 suites, which is more
than usual for a stadium of its size. As a comparison, the recently opened 21,193-seat
Pizza Hut Park near Dallas only has 18 suites.
"There's demand for
suites here," Byrne added. "A lot have already been sold."
There
are 20 suites on level three, 20 on level four and three on each side of the stage,
which will serve as the green rooms for entertainers. Two or three suites can
also be interconnected to create one big space.
All Chicago Fire coaching,
sales and operations offices will be on the second level.
The main concourse
is on the third floor. The stadium will also house food courts, retail displays,
a pressroom, training rooms, four locker rooms and meeting rooms.
While
stadium clubs typically have a view to the field, Byrne said the club at Bridgeview
is on the first level, which makes more room for suites and allows the club to
become a 250- to 300-seat restaurant for everyday use with the main entry facing
Harlem Avenue. Has Brick, Cast-Stone A large,
arched entrance anchors the center of the main facade, which will be surrounded
by direct exterior finish systems, deep red brick masonry and cast-stone accents.
A band of fabric panels above the fourth floor's windows will feature soccer images
or advertising.
Preassembled, architectural structural steel canopies that
are painted white rise from the east and west lengths of the stadium. White metal
panels will be installed on the canopies to provide weather shelter to fans. Field
lighting and a catwalk for access to lighting will also hang from these canopies.
Seating
will be close to the playing field as in European venues.
"It's an
intimate facility," Harmon said. "The canopies are designed for both
weather protection and to create a sense of enclosure."
Playing in
a 20,000-seat stadium, rather than an 80,000-seat football arena, will also increase
fan interaction. "In the first row, there's only about 1 ft. of pitch, so
you're right there," Byrne said.
Building It The
site formerly was an old truck terminal yard. Crews dug down about 2 ft. and brought
in 240,000 tons of stone to create the horseshoe-shaped berm.
On three
sides, the stadium's structure is cast-in-place concrete atop the berm. The remainder
of the stadium's support is structural steel.
The east side of the stadium's
main seating consists of precast concrete treads, risers and raker beams. The
remainder of the seats in the bowl is cast-in-place treads and risers on the berm.
The backside of the berm slopes away from the stadium and will be covered with
prairie sod and landscaped.
The upper suites are a mix of precast seating
modules and cast-in-place seats. The upper seating on the west side is a fixed
aluminum riser seating system.
This summer, crews have been pouring concrete
slabs on deck for each level and erecting the steel canopies. The project was
expected to create more than 700 construction jobs.
"We're building
it as quick as they're asking us to, and keeping an eye on every dollar,"
Harmon said. "We're opening up as much work to as many trades as we can and
getting materials here on time."
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