Arizona City Builds Fast-Track Field of Dreams for Chicago Cubs
Spring training ballparks are great places to take in the national pastime in sunny Arizona. Until recently, these parks have been relatively straightforward to design and construct—most with seating for less than 10,000 fans.
But a new ballpark under construction in Mesa, Ariz., for the Chicago Cubs, is not only larger than other Arizona spring training facilities—with a 15,000-seat stadium, practice fields, locker rooms, offices and integration of a public park and lake—but it was built within a challenging fast-track schedule.
Hunt Construction Group, Phoenix, is the construction manager at-risk for the $99-million project, which includes the largest stadium in the Cactus League.
Included on the 146-acre site, located near the Loop 101 and Loop 202 Red Mountain freeways at the intersection of Mesa, Tempe and Scottsdale, are 17 structures and six full-size practice fields.
Kansas City, Mo.-based Populous, which has designed nearly 250 stadiums and arenas, is the architect. Hunt has led construction efforts for 136 sports venues, including the University of Phoenix Stadium, home of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals in Glendale, Ariz.
About 60 subcontractors have worked on the fast-track project, which broke ground in July 2012. Substantial completion is scheduled for November with full completion in December, giving the Chicago Cubs ample time to prepare for the first pitch of the Cactus League season in March 2014.
Initial work started with demolition and mass grading in order to eliminate the structures and contours of the old, nine-hole Riverview Golf Course that was razed in order to build the facility.
"Other than some existing utility corridors we had to pay attention to, it was a pretty wide open site," says Tab Baker, project executive with Hunt. "It was kind of a clean slate for us."
The three largest structures on the site include the stadium itself; a three-level, 45,000-sq-ft left-field building just beyond the outfield wall; and a two-level, 65,000-sq-ft clubhouse.
The project also includes a 25-acre, $9-million park that includes a five-acre children's playground as well as a reconstructed and enlarged six-acre, 27-million-gallon lake that serves as both the irrigation source for the entire complex and an urban fishing spot.
‘Steeling’ A Bit Of Wrigley Field
The stadium was designed to look like Wrigley Field, where the Cubs play in Chicago. The ballpark includes similar playing field dimensions to Wrigley, showcases the familiar bricks behind home plate and will make Cubs fans feel right at home due to the familiar, expansive green lighting structures.
"The green light towers with the rolled members are the main focal point," says Mark Fultz, general manager for Able Steel, which is supplying 1,802 tons of structural and 394 tons of miscellaneous steel. "It gives you that old ballpark feel."
In balancing the fan and player experience with a strict, voter-approved budget, both the Cubs and the city of Mesa had to focus on value engineering from the start.
"The one interesting feature we helped steer toward modifying was the main roof beams," Futz says. "The initial design called for a plate-girder type assembly, and we were able to change that to a wide-flange beam coming directly out of the middle. What we ended up doing was basically taking a pie section right out of the web and pulling the bottom flange up to give it the overall look that was the initial intent all along, through a plate girder."
Not only did that help material costs, it helped speed up construction, Futz says. And it looks better than the initial conceptual design, he says, because it keeps the materials consistent throughout the entire facility.
Suntec Concrete, which is supplying 13,500 cu yd of concrete, also helped manage costs by working closely with Populous to add exposed concrete finishes on the suite level as well as decorative saw patterns throughout the entire site.
"The saw pattern ties into the stairs, the dugouts, the exterior buildings, the landscape areas and so on," says Matt Rogers, Suntec's senior project manager. "It was a huge focal point for our team and, in the end, is one of the pieces that everybody is going to see."
Suntec's most daunting tasks were achieving the precision required for pouring the risers and staying on schedule. There are 9,000 fixed seats in the stadium, which features a playing field 16 ft below grade.
In the span of 12 weeks, Suntec's team poured 46 different sections of the seating risers. The sections were about 100 linear ft entailing four risers at a time, for a total of about 400 linear ft in each pour. All of the 16,900 linear feet of the 7-in. risers were "stripped and faced" by the finish division to ensure a quality vertical face for the seating to mount to. There were many days the team handled two pours, according to Rogers.
"What we did differently on this project is we formed up three to six risers at a time and we stripped and faced 100% of all the risers, "Rogers says. "What's critical about that is that the vertical face on the riser has to be very plumb, because all of the stadium seating mounts directly to the concrete. We virtually eliminated any patch material."
A critical part of Suntec's scope was to finish a tunnel that leads from the Cubs dugout to an elevator lobby. The elevator takes players directly from field level up to grade so that they can privately access the stadium as well as their stand-alone clubhouse and a 31,000-sq-ft batting tunnel building about 1,000 ft away.
The concourse-level slab on grade required 100,000 sq ft of concrete. The concourse allows fans to walk 360° around the inside of the stadium, thanks to a concourse-level bridge structure under which people and vehicles can access the playing surface from left field.
The left-field building encompasses three levels. The lower (field) level totals 17,000 sq ft and includes locker rooms for the visiting team and umpires, consisting of cast-in-place perimeter walls and a 10-in.-thick structural deck overhead. The concourse level houses the ballpark's main commissary, restrooms, retail and offices. The roof level features a 3,500-sq-ft party deck, including open space with some bleacher seating. It was designed to provide the aura of the rooftop seating areas that overlook left field at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
The Cubs' 65,000-sq-ft, stand-alone clubhouse includes a lower level with locker rooms, a workout/weight room and pre-manufactured hydrotherapy pools, for which Suntec poured a cast-in-place deck that included block outs that the tubs were lowered into. A second level includes offices and an outside balcony.
More Than Just A Ballpark
The site also includes 11 miles of underground utilities.
"It was a huge underground project," says Baker, referring to the site's main irrigation line that loops from the lake around the entire complex to provide water for the stadium, six practice fields and a 14-acre site just east of the ballpark that serves as grass parking during spring training and city soccer fields for the remainder of the year.
A future commercial/retail development area, known as Wrigleyville West, is also in the planning stages for the site.
"Interest in the development around the stadium has been good," says William Jabjiniak, economic development director for the city of Mesa. "We are in conversations with two different hotels, which are looking at the Wrigleyville West development area."
The site has 2 million sq ft of grass, which required precise scheduling efforts before it was planted and careful attention to site navigation afterward.
"Getting that amount of work done in this time frame has been a challenge. There are a lot of elements here that you would not normally have," Baker says.
The city hands over the player development complex to the Cubs in October, but will continue to manage the park, which includes a large splash pad, a 50-ft-tall rope climber, a fountain feature, ramadas and a colonnade that connects the park to the east side of the stadium site.
According to Ross Renner, engineering manager for Mesa, the project was slightly under budget and on schedule as of late August.
The city of Mesa and Hunt Construction easily surpassed their goal of awarding 20% of the direct construction cost to Mesa contractors, Renner says.
