CASE STUDY #1

Photo Courtesy of NanaWall

Design Requirements: The addition of the Stueckle Sky Center to Boise State Stadium addressed needed improvements to university operations, including production and media broadcast support for its successful athletic department. Yet the school’s mandate to Salt Lake City-based FFKR Architects also emphasized new opportunities for “booster accommodations” – luxury seating and event spaces for big fans of the BSU Broncos, on three of four new levels: loge boxes, club seating, and sky suites. “The client wanted the luxury ‘Club’ seating level, spanning 324 feet, to accommodate 800 patrons in seats that could be open-air or windowed, as conditions required,” recalls Jim Lohse, AIA, senior principal with FFKR Architects. For the best possible game-day experience, window framing needed to be minimized as much as possible in FFKR’s sleek, contemporary design, whether open or closed, eliminating obstructions to views of the field below.

Design Solution: Converting to an open-air stadium usually requires larger mullions, headers and sills. Yet the architects chose to work with minimal framing, a challenge that few fenestration products can meet. Ultimately, FFKR’s team specified a thermally broken, aluminum framed, single-track sliding glass wall system – and they did so on an unprecedented scale. The 324-foot span splits in the center and fully retracts in only about 60 minutes, providing unobstructed views unachievable with conventional windows, says FFKR. Switching from open to closed had to be a relatively fast operation, too. In this way, the movable system allows the facility manager to make the decision to “go open or go closed” based on weather conditions just before game time.

“The client also wanted a smaller operable glass wall,” continues Lohse, “Four to eight panels, on the Loge level below, were used to enclose an area for food-and-beverage service and casual mingling.” Here again, the challenge was to deliver open-air conditions when possible, and minimally obstructed views from the event space when the glass panels were closed. The Loge level’s movable glass wall system is smaller in scale but with floor-to-ceiling glass to provide a stunning view of Broncos football events in any weather.

Results: With these changes, Idaho’s college football fanatics enjoy big, unimpeded views of Boise State Stadium’s blue turf and their beloved Broncos. For both spaces, the operable glass walls withstand brutal High Plains winters, providing a high level of weather resistance. The selected system was chosen because of the manufacturer’s reputation in this field which helped create what might be the longest fully retractable span in the world. Concludes architect Lohse “We chose the all glass system as a seamless separation between the suites and stadium because of its clean and subtle appearance. It is a well-engineered operating system that fully opens for views and closes tightly for weather resistance.”