New Arizona Cardinals Stadium Will Have Retractable Roof

The $450 million new home of the National Football League's Arizona Cardinals, now under construction in Glendale, Ariz., will be the second NFL stadium to have a retractable roof and the first to feature an operable, rail-mounted playing field tray. The system enables the field to be rolled outdoors during the week, converting the stadium into a 152,000-sf convention center for concerts, trade shows, and special events.

Two 700-foot-long lenticular roof trusses will provide the longest clear span of any retractable roof stadium in the U.S. It will also be the first NFL stadium to have a translucent roof that will let light in even when the roof is closed.

The design-build project is led by Hunt Construction Group of Phoenix. A design team that included New York-based architect Eisenman Architects and HOK+Sport, Kansas City, Mo., created the distinctive design of the stadium. The structural engineering team includes the Tampa, Fla., and Austin, Texas, offices of Houston-based Walter P Moore (the designer and engineer of record for the 500,000-sf roof) and Phoenix-based TLCP Structural (engineer of record for the 1.6 million-sf cast-in-place concrete seating bowl structure).

The stadium is scheduled to open in August, in time for the NFL preseason.