AA Centre: Best Construction of 2001

[John T Roberts]

This month's D Magazine has an interesting article on David Schwarz, the architect of the American Airlines Center. Here's the link:

www.dmagazine.com/august01/featureb0801.shtml (http://www.dmagazine.com/august01/featureb0801.shtml)

[CTroyMathis]

Mostly an obscure technical aspect of something most of us know plenty about:


Best of 2001 Judges' Award
American Airlines Center

Most adjectives are inadequate when describing the American Airlines Center. Designed to host everything from athletic events and music concerts to Broadway shows, circuses and national conventions, the world-class venue features some truly state-of-the-art and one-of-a-kind innovations.

Austin Commercial Inc. served as the construction manager/general contractor for the $420 million center. Featuring 840,000 sq. ft., the AAC contains finishes not found in any other sports entertainment arena in the country such as eight rotundas open to all five levels. Designed by architects David Schwarz and HKS, the outside of the structure contains a mix of Indiana limestone, granite, glass and over 1 million bricks.

While the finished arena is a thing of beauty, the project was complicated from groundbreaking until completion. The total cost ballooned from an original $295 million price tag and resulted in a 60-percent increase in the scope of the work without ever changing the scheduled completion date.

The facility's design was not finished until about one year after construction had begun. Working with multiple architects, engineers and owners also created longer decision-making times. But Austin Commercial met design and construction challenges and also created new ways to meet deadlines.

For example, because the 2,000-car parking garage designed was not released until a year into construction, the west half of the garage was built before the east half. That way, the cooling tower could be set on the garage roof for humidity control inside the arena during interior finishing. Additionally, extensive site work design was not completed until just months before the AAC was scheduled to be finished.

Despite the complications and an aggressive work schedule, perhaps the most remarkable achievement regarding the project was that Austin Commercial and its subcontractors worked more than 3 million man-hours with zero lost-time accidents. About 1,200 workers were onsite at the peak of construction. This performance resulted in Austin Commercial being named "Safest Contractor in the Country" for 2001 by the Association of General Contractors.

The American Airlines Center serves as the new home for the NBA's Dallas Mavericks as well as the Dallas Stars of the NHL. The center-hung, octagon-shaped scoreboard in the largest and most sophisticated in the industry while the arena's retractable seating system is a patented design that allows for conversion time of just three hours between the hockey configuration to one for basketball.

The arena is the first of its kind to make use of high-definition television format wide-screens throughout the building. It also contains 42 concession stands, six kitchens, two restaurants, a club, a bar, an old-fashioned soda fountain and 142 luxury suites, each equipped with such amenities as stadium seating for 12, a full wet bar, two TV monitors and Internet access.

PROJECT TEAM
General Contractor: Austin Commercial Inc.
Location: Dallas
Owner: City of Dallas
Design Architect: David M. Schwarz/Architectural Services Inc.
Managing Architect: HSK Inc.
Garage Architect: Johnson/McKibben Architects Inc.

[gc]

Here is an interesting compilation of information I read in D Magazine by Adam McGill. Hey Adam, if you are reading this...where is your opinion?
------------------------------------
Sports: AAC's State of the Union
by Adam McGill - D Magazine
http://www.dmagazine.com//article.asp?articleid=592

When the American Airlines Center was being built, it certainly had its share of opponents. Now that we've had two years to live with the arena, how does Dallas like it? Sportscasters, fans, players, and other experts share their thoughts on the AAC.

When the $420 million American Airlines Center opened, critics were numerous, vocal, and easy to find. Mayor Laura Miller, who was a City Council member at the time, was an outspoken opponent of the financing of the center, especially because taxpayers had to pitch in $125 million. Dallas Morning News architecture critic David Dillon was unimpressed, saying that the building sends the message "that [Dallas] is more comfortable with the past than the present, that it is better to be big than bold." As recently as March, the City Council's frustration with the lack of surrounding development boiled up again when Urban Related Development, formerly known as Palladium, announced that it could not move forward with a proposed project—namely $600 million worth of mixed-use development, including 300,000 square feet of retail—in the dirt hole that stands on the downtown side of the AAC.

But now, as it enters its third season of use as the home venue for the Mavericks and the Stars, public sentiment has shifted somewhat. The building itself seems to have won over as many fans as teams that play there. The development plans have renewed vigor after Hillwood's new partner, Gatehouse Capital, announced a relatively more modest project that includes a W Hotel, condos, and retail and office space. The American Airlines Center's popularity has outweighed the critics' concerns. Or has it?

We asked around to find out what people think of the AAC now that the newness has worn off, the sticker shock has faded away, and the city's long-term relationship with the building has settled in.

David Schwarz
Architect of the AAC

"I think everyone else's thoughts are much more important than mine. It was a building that was designed for the people, and if the people like it, then it's a success. ... We want our building to last a long, long time. We want it to be something that the city and citizens embrace and really have a strong emotional attachment to for a long, long time. From the responses I hear, people really like it. That's the most important thing. ... I understand that my clients have timed their completion of the arena at an unfortunate time of the development cycle, and there's not a lot of need for most of the uses they've contemplated around the arena. I'm really looking forward to the time when the arena is part of a dense urban fabric, and I'm sure that time will come."

Dale Hansen
Sportscaster, WFAA-TV Channel 8

"I've never heard of anybody who sat in the nosebleed seats anyplace and thought they were any good. I'm not sure what the definition for a good nosebleed seat would be. They're expensive, as is everything in America nowadays, and I think there's probably a quasi-complaint there, but my argument would simply be, 'Well, how do you fix that?' You gotta have X number of seats. I've heard people say, 'Gee they're charging a lot of money for these really bad seats.' Well, don't buy them. Look this up: it's not in the Constitution that we're guaranteed access to a Mavericks game. The ticket prices will come down when people stop buying the tickets."

Daryl Reaugh
Stars commentator

"[The ice at the AAC] is an enormous upgrade over what [the Stars] were used to playing on in the old building, which just sort of resembled ice. The surface isn't the problem. They've had more issues, I think, with the boards, and the bounciness on the bottom areas of the boards. It fluctuates with how busy the building is.

"It was a shock for a lot of people to go from what was arguably the loudest and most intimidating building in the league for other teams to a beautiful, palatial building. Obviously, if you stick in 150 suites and some restaurants, you're going to lose some of the intimacy."

Marty Turco
Goaltender, Dallas Stars

"The American Airlines Center is a great building because it combines beauty with a great deal of class, and the crowd makes it an intimidating atmosphere. We've had almost 240 sellouts in a row, including every game since we moved into the AAC, and visiting teams know that Dallas is not an easy place to come in and get a win. The facilities are absolutely top-notch, and that allows us to give our best effort on the ice. When you have a first-class building like we do, there are no excuses [for not playing] your best."

Ron Kirk
Former mayor of Dallas

"I had a lot of friends on the other side of this [debate], remarkably. I mean, obviously, I fought with them, but one of them called me the other day. Apparently he was on his way in from out of town and he said, 'Kirk, I gotta tell you. I drove by the American Airlines Center. (And this was back in the middle of hockey season.) The parking lot was full, and there were cars all around. Given that it's the middle of Dallas with nothing else going on, I gotta admit that it was the right thing to do.'

"At the end of the day, in all our efforts as we struggled to bring life to downtown, it's just one piece of the puzzle. But it was a good part of the puzzle. You've got 4 million people a year coming down to the center city to go to events at the arena, people that otherwise wouldn't come downtown.

"Just from a financial standpoint, that the city capped its investment at $125 million and we got a more than $400 million stadium, it's proven to be a very good deal. I think the development is always a challenge around these arenas. Developers tend to overpromise during the excitement of the campaign. But I believe the energy going on in the Uptown area ultimately gives it a much better chance to be successful than we had at Reunion. When I made the decision to promote the thing, I was gambling solely on getting that arena built, knowing we'd have 200 nights a year with something going on in that building and hoping, obviously, that the other development would come true."

Brian Johnson
Founder of AAC-FORCE, an AAC fan-advocacy group

"By choice, my wife and I had front-row balcony seats at Reunion, and I wouldn't have traded those seats for anything. They were absolutely outstanding. You got a great view of the ice, but you were still intimate with the game. [At the AAC] my seats went up significantly as far as height, and we were shifted down to the goal line when we were at the blue line at Reunion. So we were moved up, back, and over, and [the cost of] our seats went up 12 percent. When you cannot, from the front row on the balcony, read the names on the backs of jerseys, that's a problem. ...

"They gave us a preview of our seats before the season started, before it was even open, and I was livid. One of the managers was pretty indignant, and I went to a [message] board and was finding a lot of people with the same concerns. So we just kind of got together and built that group called AAC-FORCE (Fans Organized Regarding Center Experience) and really rode hard doing negotiations, putting little groups together, putting panels together, and things were getting done. Things were definitely getting done. More restrooms upstairs, for instance.

"For me personally, after nine years as a season-ticket holder, my wife and I didn't renew this year. It was just a personal thing. The price value, for that place, for the AAC, was just no longer there. Everything is catered to the Friends of Tom (Hicks), as many of us call them, the corporate customers. Nothing is catered to the upstairs crowd. Upstairs, you're just absent from the crowd."

Craig Miller
Co-host of Dunham & Miller, Sportsradio 1310
The Ticket (KTCK-AM)

"From an atmosphere standpoint, I think it's very clinical, very antiseptic, very cold. I don't like the gray seating. I don't like that the fans aren't right on top of the court or the ice. I had season tickets up in the nosebleed seats—and they really were nosebleed seats—and I could barely tell which team was which. The sound in there isn't as good as Reunion. The Reunion ceiling is lower, and the acoustics were much better. The sound in the AAC gets swallowed up. That's why they have to pipe [crowd noise] in.

"The things I like about it: I guess I kind of like the high-tech feel of it. I like the scoreboard. I like all the different restaurants and bars. I think that makes for a pretty cool experience. Underneath it, the locker rooms and the training facilities are just ridiculously great. That's something Reunion can't compare on."

Brad Mayne
President and CEO of Center Operating Company

"There were brand-new things that fans had to deal with. Fans had been going to Reunion Arena for two decades. You bring them in here, and they were used to the old building. Now they've got the new building and different things to consider and deal with. The great news is, we've had all those challenges, and we were able to overcome them and get them behind us. We've had two fantastic years. ...

"Now it's been around for two years, so people are used to the facility. We're stepping up all of our operations here for better service. We've held a couple of focus groups with our suite and platinum-seat holders, and we've gotten direct input from them on things that we need to work on and things we need to work toward. We've had some discussions with our IT people [about] how we can use technologies to once again step up and continue to be the leader in our industry in how we present the events that we have here, with all of the digital signage and the concert sound system that's available to us.

"You'll see us stepping up our services. Even though we believe we're at the forefront, our position is, if we just continuing offering the same thing year after year after year, it's going to get old and stale. So we have to upgrade it, update it, and really pay an awful lot of attention to it."

Erin Venema
Stars fan

"I used to live in apartments across the street from the AAC, so I've been near it and at it since it first opened. I think it's a lovely building, and the architects and designers did a wonderful job with the grounds and the building itself. The first event I went to was the Dallas Stars season opener in 2002. Friends and I had season tickets at Reunion Arena, but we couldn't afford the new seats at the AAC. At the game that night, I sat in the upper level and was astounded at how everyone seemed to be herded off and segregated. The seating area was so steep that even I felt cramped, and I'm only 5-foot-3. It's a lovely and inviting place to be if you're lucky enough to be able to afford seats in the lower levels. Otherwise you might as well stay home."

[Tnekster]

I found this old thread and thought this might be the place to pose the question. What do you all think about Steve Brown's bit about AAC being "left behind"?



Steve Brown:
Painted into a design corner



AAC's red brick retro doesn't match sleek towers rising nearby




09:14 AM CDT on Friday, October 21, 2005







Many years ago when I was young and foolish, I painted diagonal stripes on my living room wall.

At the time I thought it was brilliant. Of course, it wasn't.

Stripes are just fine for zebras and race cars, but they don't do a lot for living rooms, let me tell you. Eventually I figured this out.

Sadly, it will take more than a bucket of white paint to fix American Airlines Center.

The Uptown sports arena is a beautiful building – the epitome of early 20th-century design.

And that's the problem. The sleek towers and apartment blocks going up around the arena aren't done nostalgia-style. Indeed, those buildings – as I've said before – may be some of the best of 21st-century architecture.

They make the red brick arena look even more out of date.

Originally, plans for the Victory project called for several buildings in similar retro style to join American Airlines Center. Over the years, those plans were scrapped, and the developers – wisely – quit looking back and moved ahead in architecture.

But that still leaves the massive arena with its period features as the centerpiece of the neighborhood.

Victory's developers would have been better off with the design proposed by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox. It was a streamlined, curving building of glass and metal with soaring light towers along both sides. There wasn't a red brick in sight.

Kohn Pedersen Fox has gone on to work on other buildings proposed for Victory, including a tower planned across the street from the arena.

Two ultra-modern retail and office buildings that will soon rise on the south side of American Airlines Center will partially block the view of the arena from the modern W Hotel across the street.

But no amount of construction will disguise what the arena has become – a building that's been left behind.

[rantanamo]

I would bet that something near it will either be close to it in design, or a hybrid of brick and modern like........................The two Fairfield residentials or something like the Mondrian.

[hamiltonpl]

I like the design of the AAC. If all the buildings in the neighborhood matched, it would look like Disneyland. The retro architecture of the AAC against the modern architecture of Victory Plaza and the W is an interesting and sharp contrast.

The AAC replaced the old TXU smokestacks. I'm glad they used the retro design in its place.

[BigD5349]

I would have preferred a more striking, modern design for AAC, but this is what we've got now. It's not a distraction to me, I like a mix of styles. I'm sure the biggest design challenges are related to the plaza buildings, transitioning from the AAC to the W.

I can't judge it by the renderings, and I can't decide if the mockup sitting next to AAC makes for a good transition. The metal, corrugated skin doesn't look right to me.

The original design for the plaza buildings were boring, so I'm glad they will have those screens hanging there, the TV studios, etc. I hope it energizes that spot.

I'll wait to see the final result in person.

[frankchitown]

I was hoping for one of the modern designs before the AAC was built. I thought the chosen plan looked like a glorified high school building from the 50s, but over the years the building has grown on me. I am glad that the other developments didnt follow the style of the AAC. That would be a lot of brick from the West End to the arena, and wouldnt have the appeal that Victory has now. A contrast of style in the areas buildings add more of a city feel to the area.

[Insidetheloop]

The detached garage to the AAC was a mistake. It's almost as if it were an afterthought. It costs over $25 to park there(or more) for an event and you still have to walk across the street and stand in line for security checks. This is a big problem if you have a goosed up ladyfriend with you in a driving rain storm(ask me how I know this).

Otherwise, I really like the interior. The various escalators are confusing the first time you enter and the snack bar area for many of the suites are actually down a 1/2 level. Bathrooms are awesome and clean. I wish they had a TV in them.

[Tnekster]

If the area around the AAC builds up as expected, how much of the arena will you be able to see unless you are standing next to it?

[Insidetheloop]

If the area around the AAC builds up as expected, how much of the arena will you be able to see unless you are standing next to it?

Probably just the view looking from the north, down to the south.

One thing I like about the AAC is the intense natural sunlight that filters through early in the evening from the west. It really makes the interior shine. I hope that is not blocked.

[BigD5349]

The detached garage to the AAC was a mistake. It's almost as if it were an afterthought. It costs over $25 to park there(or more) for an event and you still have to walk across the street and stand in line for security checks. This is a big problem if you have a goosed up ladyfriend with you in a driving rain storm(ask me how I know this).

Otherwise, I really like the interior. The various escalators are confusing the first time you enter and the snack bar area for many of the suites are actually down a 1/2 level. Bathrooms are awesome and clean. I wish they had a TV in them.

I'd really like to see them building a couple of levels of underground parking under that massive surface lot to the NW of AAC. Then would love to see that awful parking garage demo'd. Yeah, I know, not in our life times.

[Agnus Dei]

And that's the problem. The sleek towers and apartment blocks going up around the arena aren't done nostalgia-style. Indeed, those buildings – as I've said before – may be some of the best of 21st-century architecture.

I have to take issue with this. Nothing that I've seen already put up or drawn to come up in the near future screams amazing architecture. The surrounding area, if it follows the plans, will have very clean lines, yes, but very unimpressive architecture. That's actually been my only beef with what Victory will eventually look like. I don't find something looking of its time to be a bad thing, though. But I do think the moving screens along the plaza will more quickly look like a dated project than the AAC.

[DFWCRE8TIVE]

Look what made #118 (http://blog.aia.org/favorites/2007/02/118_american_airlines_center_2.html) on the AIA's list of America's 150 favorite structures.

"Although the massive arches on the brick, limestone, and granite exterior of the American Airlines Center harken back to the era of the big-city train terminal, they belie the high-tech, state-of-the-art interior of this sports and entertainment complex. Built on a former brownfield site, the center was meant to signal the revitalization of the city’s Victory Park neighborhood. "

http://www.aia150.org/

http://blog.aia.org/mt-static/plugins/Ajaxify/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/imagemanager/images/favorite_architecture_images/ut0084470.jpg

[drycreek]

I thought that list was crap. To have any state capitol building ahead of the one down in Austin is a joke. And maybe I missed it but I didn't see the Kimball on there.

[KBilly]

The AAC has the worst upper level seating and sight lines for hockey of any new arena built in the past 10 years. Truly horrible.

Scwartz replicated a baeball stadium in 'mini-me' mode, right down to the sterile, segregated, income levels with vast expanses of empty hallway space.

Give me the Pepsi Center in Denver any day. Or GM Place in Vancouver.

[dallasbrink]

The AAC has the worst upper level seating and sight lines for hockey of any new arena built in the past 10 years. Truly horrible.

Scwartz replicated a baeball stadium in 'mini-me' mode, right down to the sterile, segregated, income levels with vast expanses of empty hallway space.

Give me the Pepsi Center in Denver any day. Or GM Place in Vancouver.

What do u know?
American Airlines Center has great sight lines....i sat at the very last seat at the top of the stadium for the stars playoff game. I could see fine.

[dallasbrink]

stupid article, the area looks cool with the American Airlines center with the old look. Besides, why down the MASSIVE arena that opened in what...2001, when the other buildings that are just now being built could have changed there design to look like the MASSIVE PRE BUILT ARENA!

I think it looks cool.
Besides, its what happens on the inside that matters
GO MAVS, GO STARS