The missus and I went to Dallas, Texas to visit our good friend Mike this past week and on our final day, we made the trek over to the new Cowboys Stadium. Now, while my likes and dislikes of the Cowboys vary from reason to reason, I do keep up with the team and have a great admiration of the history of our rival franchise. Of course, I did go as a "representative of the Burgundy and Gold" and I proudly said I was a Redskins fan when prompted by our stadium tour guide, haha...I do preface this blog by stating that we were limited on both camera battery life and more importantly, time. Our tour was self-ended about 30 min early so we can catch our flight. We missed the opportunity to actually go onto the field (which really is a shame, I really wanted to do the T.O. pose on the star). Anyways, below you'll find some photos and for those who are willing to read through, some critique on the architecture from yours truly.
Some quick and random facts-at-a-glance of the new stadium.
Cost - North of $1.5 billion
Location - Arlington, Texas, outside Dallas by about 20 minutes and across from both the Texas Rangers baseball stadium and a Wal-Mart (seriously).
Architect - Dallas-based HKS, Inc.
Construction Time - 2006-2009, approximately 2-1/2 years.
Parking - Minimum $75 (Yikes!) and no public transportation
Seating - about 90,000+ seats
Ticket Prices - Moderately to highly expensive for decent seats. You can buy $30 non-seats, which allow you to just wander the stadium or stand at the level behind the end zones.
Beer - On average $8 (comparable to FedEX field)
Throughout the year, the stadium is used for other performances/shows such as Monster truck rallies, boxing fights (Pacquiao fought here in early march), the NBA All-Star game, and of course, rodeos.
Above, JJ and Mike are in front of the main entrance.
The exterior architecture of the stadium is very modern and contemporary, mixing the use of the metal cladding and reflecting glass. The colors exhibited by the materials, especially on this sunny day really play off the Cowboys royal blue and silver colors. I really like the flare of the reflecting glass downward playing with the scale of the site. Typically more than not, larger sports stadiums are curvilinear by nature so I'm less receptive to some of the abrupt changes in plane and geometry for the front facade. What the exterior does quite well is manipulate the role of transparency. It feels quite skeletal due to the large amounts of glass and thin steel. What isn't transparent feels very robust and give off a powerful presence. As I think about it more, and JJ knows this, my graduate thesis played off some of the same architectural motivations and design intents. Crazy, maybe I'll be designing stadiums further down the road.
Walking along the lengthy side of the stadium. The reflection in the glass reduces the size of stadium towards a more human scale.
Up close at the entrance, quite grand by its own right.
One of the main structural footings for the truss system.
Structurally, the stadium is held up by two very wide and intricate trusses that span from the outside inward, as shown above, longitudinally from the short ends across the stadium through the two end zones. These wide trusses also hold up much of the roof and the large suspended jumbo LCD screens inside. The rigidity and integrity of the structure affords the roof and sides to open. The stadium has both a retractable roof as well as the opening of both ends. The roof takes about nine minutes to open and the two sides open simultaneously for about four minutes. I do wish I had more time to detail and perhaps sketch the structure so I can analyze it more.
The view from the Main concourse level. Your eye immediately scans the field and then jumps to the big jumbo LCD.
Once you go inside, you'll find the extensive gift and team shop to your left. I was tempted the get an Aikman jersey (he is still one of my favorite QBs and he wears my lucky number, 8). However, from the entrance, you'd go up the main escalator onto the main concourse. Along this level are what seem like a bajillion concession stands and the typical stadium facilities. Go ahead, stare at the big screen, you know you want to. The two big screens only measure at around 160x70 feet and are the largest 1080p LCD TVs on the planet. Everything is bigger in Texas, as the saying goes. Even the little guys on the ends are about 70x30 feet. Like I mentioned before, they are held up by suspension by the roof and require an elevator lift for maintenance. That whole system plus the screens cost about $40 million alone. High def indeed!
I would LOVE to play a game of Madden on it, just for irony's sake.
Mid-Lower level seating starting at $350. Worth it? Maybe. One thing for sure, your ass will feel comfortable.
Our tour officially started at these seats. Here we hear wikipedia-esque facts from our guide and which I've mentioned most above already. From the image above, you can definitely get a sense of how large the stadium actually is, and how good the views of both the field and the TV are. To the left is the $30 standing room only area. Also on that end is one of the two operable window walls. Most of the seating average around under $200, with the nose bleed sections closer to $50. We did not go to other sections so I can't vouch for how good those seats could be. Perhaps they're good anyways. One thing that this stadium tops over FedEx Field, no limited view areas.
Club Level seating, where the price isn't quite right, but you're told it is.
So the last part of the tour before we left early was at one of the club level suites. Here, the price was about $350 as well, BUT you must "purchase" the room first, equivalent to the price of all forty seats there. On top of that, you have to front up some of deposit or something like that as well. Now aside from a nice seat and access to food and drink, your view of the game is alright. You're a bit too high to really see the game, but hey, you're at the club level. The glazing is operable so if you want, you can have an it open to get a more stadium feel. And thus, our tour of the stadium ends. We toured a bit of some of the administrative areas and I think some of the executive offices would have been on the tour in addition to the on-field portion. Oh well, there'll never be a next time. I've seen all I need to see in Dallas. Sorry, Mike.
Final thoughts??
As a football fan, I think this is indicative of what a legacy Jerry Jones wants out of his tenure as owner. He maximizes financial opportunity and realizes the fact that his team is the de facto image of a successful NFL franchise. It is quite awesome to see such a devotion to the enjoyment for the NFL fan. HOWEVER, there is a price to pay, and he will milk that fan for whatever he has. I still can't imagine paying upfront so much money for what could ultimately be an overstimulating experience. Coming here will clearly be about the experience, and less on the game.
As someone in the architecture profession, Cowboys Stadium is the standard by which all new stadiums will be compared. Fortunately, this stadium takes full advantage of its site, a Midwest city with little to none of the volatile weather and temperature fluctuations of both the east and west coasts. The structural design I give high marks to, with slightly lower marks for the use of materials, particularly inside the "luxury spaces". I've never had the opportunity to design a stadium in design school so I can't quite fathom how much goes into the construction process for such a large building, but I can understand the amount of players involved in this undertaking. Coordination and construction administration must be hell, haha...Overall I came away very impressed, if not very jealous that the Redskins don't have anywhere near the ability to take this similar course of action......yet. Your move Danny boy, your move.
