Busch Stadium

Project of the Year Overall

A city with a great baseball tradition ushered in a new era on April 10 when the new Busch Stadium opened in St. Louis.

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The 1.5-million-sq.-ft. facility features a panoramic view of the St. Louis skyline, including Eero Saarinen's Gateway Arch. Busch seats 45,196 Cardinal fans. As a result, fans feel a real connection with the city while cheering on their team.

The building features a historic connection to some old buildings in the neighborhood. Some of the same color and detail of brick, exposed steel elements and building copings were incorporated into the baseball stadium to maintain the downtown look.

The west entrance includes a steel design that replicates details from the historic Eads Bridge that crosses the Mississippi River from the downtown to Illinois.

In total the bulk of the stadium's structural design is made up of 5.7 million cu. ft. of excavation, 1.5 million cu. ft. of concrete, 9,000 tons of steel, 876 precast architectural brick panels and 2,020 pieces of structural precast seating risers, walls and slabs.

The new Busch Stadium is complete with modern amenities.

For example, it has 63 luxury suites, 43 party rooms, 24 permanent concession stands and 238 points of sale. There are 528 TVs and 950 stereo speakers through the facility to keep fans updated on the game details.

Fans are treated to five clubs through the stadium-The Cardinals Club, Red Bird Loge Club, Bank of America Bridge Club, Scoreboard Club and Casino Queen Left Field Porch.

The main scoreboard behind right-center field measures 40 ft. high, 120 ft. wide. It has four electronic displays, including a video board measuring 32 ft. high, 52 ft. wide.

Two long displays on the fascia of the decks along the first- and third-base lines measure 4 ft. high, 150 ft. wide. These show games in progress around the country so fans do not miss out on any baseball action.

Contracting Approach

The contract between the Cardinals and Indianapolis-based Hunt Construction Group called for a design-build guaranteed maximum price.

The basis of the contract was custom developed for the owner's benefit. The owner was able to get the contract type it needed while removing financial risk.

Hunt was the single point of responsibility for all construction and design concerns. An issue associated with any design-build approach is the ability to give the client feedback on proposed changes without fully developing a design and bid change.

A two-step process was developed, where the Cardinals would detail what it was trying to accomplish, and Hunt was then given authorization to invest with HOK to put together a conceptual design for the proposed change. Together, they would price the concept design.

The design, cost and schedule were submitted to the Cardinals for approval in processing with the final construction documents.

Ensuring Safety

Weekly safety meetings were conducted with contractors' safety and management representatives. They allowed the committee to address items that included perceptions of work about to take place, attitudes of the employees and discussion of internal and external factors.

The safety elements were part of the owner controlled insurance program, and Hunt required all subcontractors to report any injury regardless of the severity to the company's safety manager.

One point of contact allowed the project to maintain a low loss-time incident rate. The safety manager was able to bring an employee back to work instead of sending him or her home because light duty could be found.

Unique Elements

The new stadium was built around the existing stadium. Utilities had to stay active to support the existing stadium so these services were in some cases suspected or rerouted through the construction site.

The Cardinals wanted a ballpark with a retro design and modern amenities, posing budget issues. The exterior features detailed cornices, brick patterns and arches.

A modern brick precast system was used to stay on budget with the 208,000 sq. ft. of exterior brick.

The existing Busch Stadium presented a design obstacle, but so did Highway 64 to the south.

The loading docks, trash docks and broadcast trucks were moved up to grade from a subterranean dock under the stadium. This presented the obstacle of working around the many support columns for the highway structure and the incoming electrical and mechanical services.

Further complicating the construction, the state awarded the seismic retrofit of the highway structure to be concurrent with the construction of the stadium, reducing the team's accessibility to the south side due to the highway retrofit, in addition to the north side due to the existing Busch Stadium.

Jury Comments: "The site merits recognition. While baseball parks are nothing new, it was a challenge from a construction standpoint. Though the design is not cutting edge, it fits in well with the turn-of-the-century character of downtown St. Louis. The logistics were tough. The new stadium had to be built while the old one was still standing. Trying to coordinate the project while the old stadium was still be used must have been a headache. Overall, the project is a hit!"

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