Lucas Oil Stadium

Project of the Year Overall

Lucas Oil Stadium has become an imposing element of downtown Indianapolis.

The seven-level field features a retractable roof and seats 63,000 for football, according to the Indiana Stadium and Convention Building Authority, the owner.

Lucas Oil covers 1.8 million sq ft and includes 142 corporate suites. Its football seating will be about 5,000 greater than the football seating of the RCA Dome, its predecessor. Lucas beat RCA in numerous other measures, including the distance between rows, seat width and the fact that all seats are theater-style—no bleachers.

The stadium has twice the number of public toilet fixtures, concourses twice as wide, nearly double the number of concession stands, twice as many elevators, plus two pedestrian ramps and 14 escalators. (RCA had neither). Lucas includes 183,000 sq ft of exhibit space and additional meeting spaces.

The project’s lead architect, Dallas-based HKS Inc., designed it with basketball in mind as well because as headquarters of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Indianapolis hosts NCAA Final Four basketball events every few years.

Construction Kickoff

Before excavation began in September 2005, the 38-acre site was primarily a parking lot, the site of pregame tailgating for the RCA Dome. Beyond digging up asphalt, site preparation also included demolishing a Comfort Inn constructed in the 1990s as well as a warehouse painted with a giant Colts horseshoe.

The biggest issue posed by the site was a combined sewer line carrying away most of the downtown area’s sewage and stormwater. Fortunately, because of the way the stadium is oriented on the site, the sewer affected only one corner, and the decision was made to build around it.

Workers excavated down to the sewer line and built a transfer beam structure across the sewer system. The presence of the sewer means elevators in one corner of the stadium do not reach the truncated lowest level, but otherwise the sewer line will not have a major impact.

The completed stadium includes a million square feet of poured decking, 600,000 sq ft of slab on grade and 1.1 million concrete blocks. The roof structure is 14,400 tons of steel.

Sophisticated Roof

The structure will support a sophisticated, retractable roof system, which is a key to making Lucas Oil Stadium a versatile event facility capable of allowing fresh-air football games and indoor uses, such as basketball games, conventions and the national marching band championships held every fall in Indianapolis.

Though a movable roof is not a new idea, the way it is achieved here is different.

The architect, HKS, came up with the concept of the roof panel stacking over other parts of the roof, instead of moving over a parking lot at the end of the building.

When it is time to open the roof, panels slide down the sloped, steel roofing structure, coming to a stop over the east and west stands and bathing the field in natural light. Closing the top means pulling the panels back up the incline.

Clearly, roof integrity is important in any football stadium, but it is critical that the facility remain dry when housing basketball games, conventions and other strictly indoor events.

Breezes also can blow into Lucas Oil through the huge window above the north end zone. Reportedly, the stadium has the largest operable window in the world, but the new Dallas Cowboys stadium, with its dual open end zones, will take over that distinction next year.

Open or closed, the window allows nice views of the center of downtown Indianapolis.

The basketball court will be set up in the center of the stadium floor, with seating added to courtside as it is now in the RCA Dome when it hosts Final Four events.

The difference is that Lucas Oil was designed to host basketball. It will offer good sight lines from both the upper and lower decks. Seating capacity for basketball will be about 70,000. Though normal football seating will be about 63,000, the number, too, can be expanded.

Jury Comments: “Lucas Oil changes the skyline of Indianapolis. It’s the first horizontal building to change Indianapolis. They have an innovative design to the retractable roof and are having no problems to date with the system that other playing fields with retractable roofs have with theirs. They can accommodate football, basketball and other events. It’s among the best mega-projects to hit Indianapolis in a long time.”

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