This week, a building team that includes Clark Construction Group topped out the 35,000-seat-capacity Aztec Stadium at San Diego State University.
The structural steel operations for the $310 million stadium were completed 11 months after construction commenced. Once the stadium opens in September 2022, it is expected to host more than 300 events annually, including collegiate and professional football and soccer games, concerts, and cultural events.
The facility, which project architect Gensler Sports designed to meet LEED Gold certification, is the first phase of SDSU Mission Valley, a mixed-used, medium-density campus innovation district that will include transit, 95,000 sf of retail, 4,000 residences and 400 hotel rooms, and more than 80 acres of parks and recreation space. This district is projected to have a $3.1 billion economic impact on San Diego, create 17,000 jobs, and increase the university’s enrollment by 15,000.
What had been Qualcomm Stadium was demolished—after the San Diego Chargers football team relocated to Los Angeles—to make way for SDSU Mission Valley. In June 2020, the university agreed to pay the city $88 million to acquire 135 acres of Mission Valley for this district.
CREATED 6,500 CONSTRUCTION JOBS
The Aztec Stadium is supported by 2,500 steel beams. Image: Clark Construction Group.
Some 30,000 cubic yards of concrete were poured for Aztec Stadium, which is supported by 2,500 steel beams. On average, 300 craft workers representing 15 different trade partners were on-site daily. The construction of the stadium provided nearly 6,500 construction jobs in total. In aggregate, local firms—including 35 San Diego-based businesses—were awarded $250 million in construction contracts.
Signature design elements that create connectivity to the field include the venue’s concourse level “neighborhoods,” designed to reflect the city’s diverse communities, and unique standing-room-only “piers” that jut out over stadium seating and conjure a coastal vibe.
Related Stories
| Mar 25, 2011
Qatar World Cup may feature carbon-fiber ‘clouds’
Engineers at Qatar University’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering are busy developing what they believe could act as artificial “clouds,” man-made saucer-type structures suspended over a given soccer stadium, working to shield tens of thousands of spectators from suffocating summer temperatures that regularly top 115 degrees Fahrenheit.
| Mar 11, 2011
University of Oregon scores with new $227 million basketball arena
The University of Oregon’s Matthew Knight Arena opened January 13 with a men’s basketball game against USC where the Ducks beat the Trojans, 68-62. The $227 million arena, which replaces the school’s 84-year-old McArthur Court, has a seating bowl pitched at 36 degrees to replicate the close-to-the-action feel of the smaller arena it replaced, although this new one accommodates 12,364 fans.
| Mar 11, 2011
Community sports center in Nashville features NCAA-grade training facility
A multisport community facility in Nashville featuring a training facility that will meet NCAA Division I standards is being constructed by St. Louis-based Clayco and Chicago-based Pinnacle.
| Mar 11, 2011
Slam dunk for the University of Nebraska’s basketball arena
The University of Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball programs will have a new home beginning in 2013. Designed by the DLR Group, the $344 million West Haymarket Civic Arena in Lincoln, Neb., will have 16,000 seats, suites, club amenities, loge, dedicated locker rooms, training rooms, and support space for game operations.
| Feb 23, 2011
London 2012: What Olympic Park looks like today
London 2012 released a series of aerial images that show progress at Olympic Park, including a completed roof on the stadium (where seats are already installed), tile work at the aquatic centre, and structural work complete on more than a quarter of residential projects at Olympic Village.
| Jan 21, 2011
Sustainable history center exhibits Fort Ticonderoga’s storied past
Fort Ticonderoga, in Ticonderoga, N.Y., along Lake Champlain, dates to 1755 and was the site of battles in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The new $20.8 million, 15,000-sf Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center pays homage to the French magasin du Roi (the King’s warehouse) at the fort.
| Jan 20, 2011
Houston Dynamo soccer team plans new venue
Construction is scheduled to begin this month on a new 22,000-seat Major League Soccer stadium for the Houston Dynamo. The $60 million project is expected to be ready for the 2012 MLS season.
| Jan 20, 2011
Construction begins on second St. Louis community center
O’Fallon Park Recreation Complex in St. Louis, designed by local architecture/engineering firm KAI Design & Build, will feature an indoor aquatic park with interactive water play features, a lazy river, water slides, laps lanes, and an outdoor spray and multiuse pool.
