One of the many Texas Engineering Landmarks in celebration of Texas ASCE’s Centennial: 1913-2013 “Engineering a Better Texas.” Visit them all!
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Completed in 2009, the $1.15 billion, 3 million square foot AT&T Stadium, previously (and still popularly) called Cowboys Stadium, represents an extraordinary triumph of engineering. Upon completion, at least three structural engineering world records were established, including: “longest single-span roof structure,” “largest center-hung high-def video display,” and “largest operable glass doors.”
Superlatives abound!
• World’s longest single-span roof supported by two tandem arched trusses.
Soaring 292 feet above playing field, each boxed arch is 17 ft wide, 35 ft deep, and weighs in at 3,255 tons – and each arch spans a QUARTER-MILE in length. The trusses transfer 19 million pounds of thrust at each end into four concrete abutments.
• World’s largest moving roof panels, steepest in the stadium industry, & powered with a first-of-its-kind rack and pinion drive system.
The first-of-its-kind, rack-and-pinion retractable roof was engineered with the stadium industry’s steepest roof incline -- a very steep 26° pitch. Mimicking the old Texas Stadium’s "hole," the two roof panels cover more than 215,000 square feet and are a part of a 680,000 square-foot fully retractable roof. Depending on weather conditions, it can be opened or closed in just 12 minutes.
Superlatives continue: (at time of construction) it is also the largest retractable roof of its kind in the world. When closed, the roof encompasses 104 million cubic feet of volume, making AT&T/Cowboys Stadium the largest enclosed National Football League stadium.
• The first self-cleaning stadium roof in North America.
The translucent roof panels, clad in a polytetrafluoroethelyne-coated fiberglass tensile membrane, also feature one of the world’s first applications of a photocatalytic titanium dioxide coating that uses sunlight to break down the dirt, making the roof essentially self cleaning.
• World’s largest moving glass doors.
To “connect fans with the outside,” the 180-foot-wide by 120-foot-high operable glass doors, located at each end of the stadium, are the largest operable glass doors in the world. Their five 38-foot panels take 18 minutes to open or close.
• World’s largest high definition video board on a 10-story, roof-hung support framework of its own.
The one-of-a-kind, four-sided scoreboard features the world’s largest LED high-definition (1080p) video displays. The center-hung structure consists of four Diamond Vision™ video displays, with the two main sideline displays measuring 72 feet high by 160 feet wide and two Diamond Vision™ end-zone displays measuring 29 feet high by 51 feet wide. This Guinness World Record Holder is suspended 90 feet directly over the center of the playing surface and stretches from one 20-yard line to the other. (More FAQs below)
The stadium’s design and engineering are also commended for the extensive incorporation of green initiatives into materials use and management. Here you’ll find more than 80% recycled reinforcing and structural steel content, at least 65% regional structural materials, and, as well as self-cleaning, the translucent fabric retractable roof provides substantially reduced power consumption through natural lighting.
Cowboys Stadium’s contemporary, streamlined design, efficient function, and exceptional engineering make it a truly one-of-a kind building, sure to capture the attention of Cowboys fans and the international community for years to come, as well as earning it the 2009 Texas Section ASCE Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement.
Records:
Owner- City of Arlington, Texas, Mayor, Dr. Robert Cluck
Architect- HKS, Inc., Project Lead, Mark Williams
Engineer- Walter P Moore, Project Lead, R. John Aniol PE SE
Contractor- Manhattan Construction Company, Project Lead, Mark Penny
Developer- Blue Star Development/Dallas Cowboys Football Club, Stadium General Manager, Jack Hill
ARCHITECT'S FACT SHEET FOR COWBOYS STADIUM
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Stadium Size:
- Stadium site covers 73 acres; overall site 140 total acres
- Stadium is 3 million square feet; 104 million cubic feet of volume
- Stadium length is 900 feet from one end zone retractable wall to the opposite end zone retractable wall
Exterior Façade:
- Canted 800-foot glass wall exterior slopes at 14-degree angle
- Clerestory lens is 33 feet at highest point, with overall length of 904 feet
- Arches soar 292 feet above playing field
- Each boxed arch is 17 feet wide & 35 feet deep
- Each arch weighs 3,255 tons
- Each arch spans quarter-mile in length
- Top of steel at the highpoint of the main arched trusses is 292 feet above the playing field
Retractable End Zone Doors:
- 180-foot-wide by 120-foot-high operable glass doors, at each end of the stadium, are world's largest
- Five 38-foot panels take 18 minutes to open or close
Roof and Roof Structure:
- At 660,800 square feet, the stadium’s roof is one of the largest domed sports structures in the world
- Soaring 292 feet above the playing field, the two monumental arches support the retractable roof – the world’s longest single-span roof structure
- The roof encompasses 104 million cubic feet of volume
- Opening 410 feet long by 256 feet wide encompassing 105,000 square feet
- Each roof panel weighs 1.68 million pounds
- The travel distance of each panel is 215 feet
- 14,100 tons of structural steel (equivalent to 92 Boeing 777s)
- Retractable roof opens/closes in 12 minutes
Materials:
- Non-operable pieces - steel with PVC membrane
- Operable pieces – Teflon coated fiberglass fabric
Arch Truss:
- Arch truss fabricated from special high-strength grade 65 steel imported from Luxembourg
- Structural steel’s wide flange sizes are up to W14x730 (14 inches in depth and 730 lbs. per foot)- the heaviest shape rolled in the world
- Number of bolts in arch spans: 50,000
- Total length of welding in arch spans: 165,000 feet
- Gallons of primer paint: 2,000
- Gallons of finish paint: 2,000
- The final keystone piece of the arch truss planar section is 56 feet long and weighs 110,000 pounds
AT&T STADIUM’S CENTER-HUNG DIAMOND VISION: FUN FACTS (
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AT&T Stadium in Arlington boasts the world’s largest high-definition LED video displays. At a cost of $40 million, the technological breakthroughs for the state-of-the-art video boards were completed by Mitsubishi Electric’s Diamond Vision Systems. Here are some fun facts about the first center-hung video boards in football history.
* The world’s largest 1080p video board contains 30 million light bulbs and 25,000 square feet of video displays.
* The $40 million cost is more than the original cost of building Texas Stadium.
* Each of the two center-hung sideline displays is 160 feet wide and 72 feet tall. The boards stretch from one 20-yard line to the other 20-yard line. Each of the two screens weighs 1.2 million pounds. The screen area for each sideline display board is 11,393 square feet. The video source is 1080p HDTV. The pixel pitch is 20mm. Power consumption is 635 kilowatts.
* The center-hung End Zone Displays (which the fans sitting in the end zones will view) are each 51 feet wide and 29 feet tall. Each end zone display screen weighs 25,000 pounds with a screen area of 1,439 square feet. The video source is 1080p HDTV. Pixel pitch is 16 mm. Power consumption is 80 kilowatts.
* It would take 4,920 52” flat panel televisions to equal the size of the center-hung board.
* Each of the 4 sides of the center-hung board consists of the first true 1080 HD display in an NFL stadium: 1080 true pixels in height at 20mm spacing and capable of displaying HDTV at 16:9 resolution.
* Each display contains over 10.5 million LED’s using Mitsubishi’s 10mm quad pixel pattern technology.
* The video board weighs 1.2 million pounds. The overall weight of the video board structure is more than 3.5% of the total roof weight.
* To hold the video board in place, a 72-foot tall steel structure was created that contains a 10-level network of catwalks. The lowest level is 90 feet above the playing surface. The structure weighs 600 tons.
* Steel cables measuring 3” in diameter grip each end of the board. The cables are tethered to the stadium’s steel arch trusses. The center-hung steel structure is also designed to support a 90,000 pound basketball arena style scoreboard hung from below when needed for other events such as the NBA All-Star Game, the Texas-North Carolina college basketball game, the NCAA Final Four, etc.
* The only access to the video board is via one of two motorized platforms. The platforms stop at levels 1 to 9. Level 10 is the top of the scoreboard and hold the backlit Cowboys star. The platforms move at a rate of 30 feet per minute. They are operated from field level when nobody is in the board. If someone is in the board, the platforms can be operated from the cages themselves as workers descend from the board.
* Mitsubishi Diamond Vision also supplied four screens (280-feet each) for the stadium’s lower concourse. They also provided the upper level fascia (a.k.a. “Ribbon” display) which measure 4 feet in height and stretches nearly 2,000 linear feet.
* Two Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor displays total more than 2,900 square feet.
* During Cowboys game days, an in-house production crew uses 8 high-definition cameras to provide content for the Diamond Vision center-hung boards. Producers are located in a state-of-the-art control room within the stadium. They will provide replays and up-close looks at players/coaches and content that is totally separate from the network television broadcast.
* Mitsubishi Electric was the first company to introduce large-scale video display boards for the 1980 MLB All-Star game at Dodgers Stadium. Most recently, the company has installed large high-definition displays at Turner Field in Atlanta, Yankee Stadium in New York, AT&T Park in San Francisco, MTV Studios in New York City’s Times Square, and marquees for Bally’s and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
* Jerry Jones got the idea for a high-definition center-hung board for the new AT&T Stadium while attending a Celine Dion concert at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Mitsubishi Electric’s Diamond Vision created and installed the video boards for Dion’s concert.
* Don’t call the video boards a “Jumbotron” which is a Sony product. The folks with the Cowboys and Mitsubishi will be quick to remind you that their boards are “Diamond Vision.”
* In addition to the Diamond Vision displays and Ribbon displays, Mitsubishi also provided the stadium’s new fully integrated scoring system, content management and playback system, game timers, delay of game clocks, locker room clocks, and ticket window displays.
FURTHER READING:
TexasConstruction.com Texas Top Projects #1 Dallas Cowboys’ Stadium (
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ASCE.org “Super Span” (
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Walter P Moore “DALLAS COWBOYS STADIUM” (
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Cowboy’s Stadium Construction Time Lapse (
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ballparks.com AT&T Stadium (a comprehensive collection of articles across the stadium’s history) (
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Cowboy’s Stadium Information (another FAQs list) (
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Architecture Fact Sheet (
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Wikipedia: AT&T Stadium (
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AT&T Stadium official site (
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Glenn’s Take Facts & Figures: (
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Stadiums of Pro Football: AT&T Stadium (
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Stadium Advisor: AT&T Stadium (
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Newsday, 20 fun facts about Arlington and Cowboys Stadium (
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Twisted Sifter 9/22/2009 “What Costs $1.3 Billion, Holds 111,000 people and Has the World’s Biggest TV?” (
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About.com Architecture “Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas “ (
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Time “Inside the New Dallas Cowboys Stadium” (
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(
visit link) Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Vision is Dallas Cowboys Choice for New Stadium” vision.com/news/mitsubishi_electric_diamond_vision_is_dallas_cowboyschoice_for_new_stadium
Experience Arlington “AT&T STADIUM’S CENTER-HUNG DIAMOND VISION: FUN FACTS” (
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SHEERFILL® Architectural Membranes “Largest Retractable Roof in the World” (
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ADDITIONAL WAYMARKS:
Dallas Cowboy's Stadium - Arlington, Texas
(Professional Sports Venues) (
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Dallas Cowboys Stadium - Arlington, Texas (Satellite Imagery Oddities) (
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Landing Saucer or Football Stadium - Arlington, Tx
(Odd-Shaped Buildings) (
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Dallas Cowboys Stadium - Arlington, Texas (Building Buildings) (
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LARGEST High-Definition Video Display in the World (Superlatives) (
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World’s Largest High-Definition Video Display - Arlington, Texas (Guinness World Records) (
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Dallas Cowboy Stadium Live Video - Arlington, Tx (Web Cameras) (
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