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Hunter Roberts Construction Group has done extensive work on sports projects, from university facilities to the New York Jets training facility, and it now can add major league soccer stadium to its portfolio. The company built the new 25,189-capacity Red Bull Arena for Major League Soccer’s New York Red Bulls.

Hunter Roberts began work on the stadium in Harrison, N.J., in January 2008, and it will be completed in January 2010. From then until opening day for the 2010 season on March 21, the stadium will undergo testing and final preparation. Owner Red Bull says that after playing in Giants Stadium since the team’s inception in 1996, the Red Bulls’ new stadium will be geared toward soccer fans. “The Red Bulls have been playing their game for the past several years in the old Giants stadium, and with the Giants’ new stadium, the Red Bulls decided to go off on their own,” Hunter Roberts Senior Project Manager Michael Parnell says. “They’ve really built what we think is the premier soccer stadium in the country. They really put a lot into this, and it’s coming out beautifully.”

Red Bull Arena is being built to the standards of Europe, so it will focus on maintaining a fan-friendly feel. “The closest seat is only 21 feet from the edge of the playing field, so there’s an extremely close, intimate feel to the arena,” Parnell says. “There’s really not a bad seat in the house.”

One of the most fan-friendly features at Red Bull Arena is its state-of-the-art roofing system, which covers all stadium seating but leaves the field open to the elements. Made by Birdair, the system is a translucent PTFE fabric structure similar to the roofs at Cowboys Stadium and the Houston Texans’ Reliant Stadium.

“The roof cantilevers out from the outside 120 feet to cover all seats while keeping the field open to sunlight and rain,” Parnell explains. “The fabric is stretched between each truss and anchored, and the leading 60 feet from the tip of the truss back is a semi-translucent material that allows natural sunlight through to feed the natural grass below. Major League Soccer plays rain or shine, so all spectators will be relatively comfortable, even though the game will be played in the rain.”

Beating Challenges

The stadium’s exterior is a blend of alucobond metal panels and curtain wall. Red Bull Arena’s façade was originally planned to be a metal panel system, but the design was changed to call for PTFE. The roof and facade will incorporate three different types of tensile architectural membrane, Parnell explains. These include FEP-coated PTFE mesh on the stadium roof’s leading edge, metallic silver-colored PTFE glass on the roof and upper facade and silver metallic-colored PTFE glass mesh on the lower facade. In total, approximately 322,276 square feet of fabric will form the tensioned membrane roof and facade systems.

The change in plans resulted in a big savings in the project cost, because the material is much lighter than typical metal panels. “The backup framing and substrate material that would have to be involved to support a metal panel on the façade would have caused a much beefier truss system and [required] additional materials for framing and sheathing,” Parnell explains. “It really saved the project a good amount of money, and it’s a really nice-looking product. It allowed the stadium to achieve all the curves the architects were looking for while saving costs and a decent amount of materials.”

Despite using less metal in the stadium’s façade, Parnell says that with more than 12,000 pieces of steel and 7,000 shop drawings, Red Bull Arena is one of the most complicated steel project in New Jersey in the past two years. But even with challenges in the designing, engineering, fabrication and erection, Hunter Roberts is ahead of schedule, thanks to the work of its steel contractor, Canam. “They had a very sharp group of engineers and draftsmen that did a tremendous job on this project,” Parnell states. “It all fit like a glove and required very little field work directive to complete the installation. They did a great job with structural steel, coordinated the lower bowl precast stadia and upper bowl aluminum stadia, and both of those systems were erected pretty flawlessly, so our hats are off to the job Canam did.”

Red Bull also made ongoing interior finish redesigns as the project was progressing, but Hunter Roberts was able to deal with those challenges and maintain its project completion date. “They were basically redesigning the entire interior finish spaces in the club building,” Parnell says. “We absorbed a couple months of interior redesign and areas being on hold through re-sequencing and stacking of trades. We maintained the beneficial occupancy the client was looking for.”

The stadium is located on a 12-acre site about 10 minutes from New York City, but Hunter Roberts didn’t have to deal with typical challenges of tight, urban sites. It did, however, encounter areas that needed soil remediation and other environmental improvements. Parnell explains that beneath all occupied slabs on grade, a sub-slab gas venting system was installed, which takes all vapors from beneath the slab and vents them through the roof.

Sporty Amenities

Red Bull Arena’s capacity of 25,189 seats will include 30 luxury suites – 20 in the lower level and 10 in the upper – and 1,116 club seats. The stadium will have three stadium clubs and two retail outlets. The suite and club seats will be on the west side of the field, and each will have access to their own private clubs.

In addition to its fan-friendly environment, Red Bull Arena will be media-friendly. There will be 100 media seats directly behind the players’ benches, and the main press area will be behind the bench areas in the lower bowl. There also will be two press work areas – the main one will be under the press seating near the locker rooms and the other will be on the fifth level.

Red Bull Arena will have state-of-the-art facilities to allow for high-definition technology. There will be three TV and three radio broadcast areas at center field on the fifth level, just 90 feet from the field. At each end of the stadium will be a video board, and there also will be a 360-degree wraparound message board. And fans who venture to visit one of the 65 concession stands don’t have to miss out on exciting plays, thanks to Red Bull Arena’s 300 flat-screen video panels placed throughout the stadium.

Fans will be able to reach the stadium easily via public transportation, from the PATH Trains and N.J. Transit to the Harrison station, which will be refurbished as part of the Harrison Metro Center project.

Arena Anticipation

When setting out on this project, Red Bull aimed to build the premier soccer stadium in the country, and Parnell says Hunter Roberts has helped make that become a reality that will excite the community. “People will be interested in coming out and checking this place out,” he says. “It’s quite a sight to see from the road and the trains that pass by on the way to the city, and I’m sure it’s piqued a lot of interest from active fans and casual observers, as well.”

For a project of this magnitude, Parnell says a key to success was close communication and teamwork between Hunter Roberts, architect Rossetti Architects and Red Bull. “It requires a lot of patience and cooperation on all parts, from construction manager to owner and design team,” he states. “It was a group of people that communicate well, and we have an understanding of the dynamics of a team required to complete the very difficult coordination of this type of project.”

That teamwork and communication have resulted in a project that will stand out not only in Hunter Roberts’ portfolio, but for everyone who had a hand in it. “I think that this is really a signature project, not only for the area and the town of Harrison, but for everyone who’s worked on it,” he notes.

“When you build a stadium or any public venue, it’s one of those things that you’ll be able to drive by and point at and take your kids and grandkids there for many, many years to come and be able to point it out in the skyline and say you were involved in that.”