I have spent the past 5 - 6 weeks playing around with SketchUp in my spare time. This is my
fantasy stadium for Halifax.
Of all the stadiums that I have looked at on the internet over the past 18 months (a couple of hundred at least), I like the
Stanford design the most - it is compact, economical (50,000 seats at $90 million dollars), and practical. It is a basic design that is arranged to give good sight-lines and the Stanford design looks quite good, in my opinion. So that is what I based my imaginary design on.
These sketches show some ideas that I think would give an economical stadium design with lots of versatility (such as being easy to convert seating areas to club seats or luxury boxes). The design is based on repeating 50 foot wide sections (only the corners are a bit of an exception), double, unheated concourses connect to central washrooms and concessions on both sides, which are essentially separate but integrated buildings. The roof would only cover the upper tier, while people in the lower tier could go under the upper tier for shelter from the rain and sun. The roof is based on the
Kansas City Wizards Stadium design which I think is a fairly basic cantilever roof design (as an interesting side note, it looks similar to a design in this 105 year old book -
link). I imagine a fairly modest overhang of about 60 feet (minimizing the unsupported overhang will reduce the roof cost). Under the back of the roof there is space which could be used (in the future) for additional club seats.
In the fully built configuration it would seat 42,000 (below). I didn't draw the roof covering, just the supports to show the size. (I also haven't shown the tunnel to the change-rooms from the center sidelines) One way to reduce the seating capacity would be to cut out the upper corner seats and one end, then the layout would look similar to the
Princeton Stadium.
Another way to reduce the capacity from 42,000 down to 25,000 is with a layout like the one below. Although not the least expensive layout for 25,000 seats, it would provide cover, either under the roof or under the stands, for all spectators. It would also lend itself to be easily expanded to ~30,000 by completing the horseshoe. Then by completely enclosing the field it could be expanded to the final capacity of 42,000. The layout below is somewhat like the
Boise, Idaho Brono's stadium.
(this is just how I imagine a stadium might be - the possibilities are endless).
The lower seating bowl could be built so that the top couple of rows could be converted from general seating to club seating/luxury suites, and preferably should include 1% of the total stadium capacity as wheelchair accessible seating plus guest(s) (i.e. have portable chairs for guests of wheelchair spectators). The National Building Code requires fewer than this but new stadium designs such as the renovated Ottawa Landsdown proposal are providing 1%. All wheelchair accessible seating would be at street level to minimize ramps, and avoid costly elevators. Since this is a sunken bowl design, street level is the first concourse level between the lower and upper bowl. The wheelchair accessible areas are elevated (double row height) and two rows wide so that people in wheelchairs can see over the heads of standing spectators and have easy access. The 50 foot wide repeating segments are built so that the seats can go right to the top of the lower bowl, or have a row of wheelchair accessible seating plus club-seat boxes at the top of the lower bowl, or two rows of wheelchair accessible seating at the top of each lower bowl segment. The three options are shown in the following image (three 50 foot segments with alternate seating arrangements):
If there is ever a need, the top of the upper tier (under the back of the roof) could be opened for additional club seats/luxury suites all around (like
Lambeau Field)
The double level, open air concourses, would lead to the centralized washrooms and concessions (the white block in front which would have two levels of washrooms and concessions while the basement would contain player changerooms). The open-air concourses would be unfinished but would provide lots of space for spectators to get cover from the rain and move around the stadium. There would be about 4 square feet of concourse space for every spectator which is in line with the current industry recommended standard of 3.5 - 4 square feet of circulation space per spectator.
This the first level of the concourse near the centralized washrooms and concession area (it would be functional with sufficient washroom and concession space):
This is the 2nd concourse level which would have similar washroom and concession areas as the first level. The 2nd level is at the 2nd tier vomitorium level . There would be 4 large men's washrooms and 4 large women's washrooms for 25,000 seats (more would be added at the ends if expanded). There are 8 centralized concession areas on both sides of the stadium.
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fenwick we posted this the exact same time.
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