Last week a few friends approached me and asked if I wanted to get season tickets to the inaugural season of the Florida (sorry... Miami) Marlins in their new stadium. Sure, the excitement of seeing a team I've grown up with should be enough to sell me on the tickets, but unlike most of the notoriously bad "bandwagon fans" in this city, I do want to go to the ballpark... I want to go to the ballpark, to see the ballpark. The team...meh.
The new Marlins ballpark will open its doors in April of this year, and before even opening it has already become an icon in the Miami skyline. The stadium's futuristic design, curved shapes and glass facades make it stand out among the city center and among other ballparks. Its two most noticeable features are a 240 ft. wide, 6 panel sliding glass wall that slides open to reveal the downtown skyline; and a 3 panel trussed retractable roof, the first of its kind in a baseball park. But to me, the most surprising aspect of the stadium is something that can, and probably will, go unnoticed: this mega structure can withstand 146 mile per hour winds. For you non Miami-Dade residents, that 263% higher than the wind loads in the rest of the country. How did they manage to do this while keeping the movable roof panels lightweight and cost effective? Simple, they place them 10 ft. apart! In the event of a hurricane, the panels will be placed in a semi-closed position; by placing them slightly apart the wind sail effect of the roof is greatly reduced and uplift loads are not fully developed along the entire roof. I would love to have been the guy at the meeting that said something like "Hey you know how we can reduce steel by 1,000 tons? Lets keep the panels apart during a storm". I know it sounds obvious and a bit silly, but believe me, if engineers came up with and were free to test and explore more silly ideas like this every day, our field would be much better off.
From an engineering standpoint, the stadium hits a home run. Four concrete supercolumns support the concrete track beam and crane rail system, which uses drive wheels to move more than 1 million lbs of load at 39 ft. per minute. All this can be done by one operator on one computer. Even the lifting of the roof trusses is astounding. Crews lifted all the truss sections from just one set of temporary shoring outside the stadium, so that work could continue inside.
The stadium has several other fan-pleasing amenities, including a 360-degree promenade level that lets fans see the game even from the concessions, a private lounge area and pool behind left field, a fish tank behind home plate, and of course it wouldn't be Miami without what some people are calling the tackiest home run feature of all time (seriously, look it up).
While there are many legal and economic issues surrounding the development of this new stadium, there's no doubt in my mind that people on every side of those issues will be able to appreciate the incredible thought and work that went into designing this new ballpark. Don't tell my friends, but come opening day, I'll be staring at the steel trusses spaced 40 ft. on center, and maybe some of the mermaids.
Click here to read the ENR story on the ballpark's roof. By Debra Wood
Click here to see the home run feature that time traveled from the 80's to discourage the team from ever hitting another home run
Posted by: Santiago Bermudez
The new Marlins ballpark will open its doors in April of this year, and before even opening it has already become an icon in the Miami skyline. The stadium's futuristic design, curved shapes and glass facades make it stand out among the city center and among other ballparks. Its two most noticeable features are a 240 ft. wide, 6 panel sliding glass wall that slides open to reveal the downtown skyline; and a 3 panel trussed retractable roof, the first of its kind in a baseball park. But to me, the most surprising aspect of the stadium is something that can, and probably will, go unnoticed: this mega structure can withstand 146 mile per hour winds. For you non Miami-Dade residents, that 263% higher than the wind loads in the rest of the country. How did they manage to do this while keeping the movable roof panels lightweight and cost effective? Simple, they place them 10 ft. apart! In the event of a hurricane, the panels will be placed in a semi-closed position; by placing them slightly apart the wind sail effect of the roof is greatly reduced and uplift loads are not fully developed along the entire roof. I would love to have been the guy at the meeting that said something like "Hey you know how we can reduce steel by 1,000 tons? Lets keep the panels apart during a storm". I know it sounds obvious and a bit silly, but believe me, if engineers came up with and were free to test and explore more silly ideas like this every day, our field would be much better off.
From an engineering standpoint, the stadium hits a home run. Four concrete supercolumns support the concrete track beam and crane rail system, which uses drive wheels to move more than 1 million lbs of load at 39 ft. per minute. All this can be done by one operator on one computer. Even the lifting of the roof trusses is astounding. Crews lifted all the truss sections from just one set of temporary shoring outside the stadium, so that work could continue inside.The stadium has several other fan-pleasing amenities, including a 360-degree promenade level that lets fans see the game even from the concessions, a private lounge area and pool behind left field, a fish tank behind home plate, and of course it wouldn't be Miami without what some people are calling the tackiest home run feature of all time (seriously, look it up).
While there are many legal and economic issues surrounding the development of this new stadium, there's no doubt in my mind that people on every side of those issues will be able to appreciate the incredible thought and work that went into designing this new ballpark. Don't tell my friends, but come opening day, I'll be staring at the steel trusses spaced 40 ft. on center, and maybe some of the mermaids.
Click here to read the ENR story on the ballpark's roof. By Debra Wood
Click here to see the home run feature that time traveled from the 80's to discourage the team from ever hitting another home run
Posted by: Santiago Bermudez
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean.
Santiago...Fantastic read. As an avid baseball enthusiast and consultant in the architectural field, I have to admit that I can't wait for the doors to open and be awed by the super structure hosting a simple ballgame.
ReplyDeleteGuys...keep up the great work on the blog. Thoroughly enjoying it.