Mercedes-Benz Stadium

MERCEDES-BENZ STADIUM

A STADIUM FOR THE COMMUNITY

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HEART OF

ATLANTA Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Scott Jenkins, General Manager of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, about an extraordinary building, sustainability in sports structures, and being a catalyst for community development.

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MERCEDES-BENZ STADIUM CITY PLAZA.

A 71,000 seat capacity, expandable to 75,000. A retractable roof styled after the oculus in the Roman Pantheon. A five-storey, 360-degree HD video board which will be the largest in the world. And one fully transparent wall, a window on the Atlanta Skyline.

“It’s [Atlanta Falcons owner] Arthur Blank’s vision to redefine the stadium experience,” says Scott Jenkins, General Manager of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

He certainly seems likely to do that. The ambition of Mercedes-Benz Stadium goes well beyond the goals of more traditional sports structures. Innovative, environmentally-friendly design features, community involvement, and a focus on fan experience means when the stadium opens in 2017, visitors won’t just have a new venue for watching the Falcons and the new Atlanta United soccer team; they’ll be walking OPEN ROOF AERIAL.

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through a new vision for the role of sports in the community, for urban architecture, and for the future of Atlanta.

OPEN BUILDING “We’re in the final stretches of construction,” explains Mr. Jenkins. “We’re now about 90% there with the fixed roof, which is about 18,000 tons of steel. As soon as we’re done with that, we’re going to put the operable petals up, which will move to open and close the roof. Then we’ll hang our video board from that.”

Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a massive and complicated project. With its falcon-wing-inspired angular facets on the exterior and its oculus, which will be able to open and close the roof in seven minutes, the architecture is striking and inventive. From the early stages of the building’s development, environmen-

WINDOW TO THE CITY BRIDGES.

tal sustainability has been an integrated – and an integral – part of the design.

“We wanted to raise the bar on every part of the stadium experience, whether that means giving world-class service or being as environmentally conscious and high performing as possible,” says Mr. Jenkins.

“Because of our operable roof, and because we’ve used lots of transparent materials, the building takes advantage of natural ventilation and natural light as much as possible.

It’s part of our emphasis on maintaining an outdoor feel. Because we’re a multi-purpose building, we obviously have to be able to close the roof to do indoor events like Men’s Final Four basketball, but we’re primarily an outdoor stadium, and the beauty of all the glass, the ETFE, and the operable roof is that the majority of the time we can play in an open condition. We like to consider the building an open stadium that can close

“WE’RE PURSUING THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE LEED CERTIFICATION – LEED PLATINUM – AND WE FEEL GOOD ABOUT WHERE WE’RE TRACKING RIGHT NOW.”

when we need to, rather than a closed building that can open.”

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN In addition to his role at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Mr. Jenkins is a founder and the Board Chairman of the Green Sports Alliance, a non-profit which advocates for environmentally friendly practices by sports venues, teams, and leagues. It shouldn’t therefore be a surprise that Mercedes-Benz Stadium is pushing the envelope when it comes to environmental sustainability. “We’re pursuing the highest possible LEED certification – LEED Platinum – and we feel good about where we’re tracking right now,” says Mr. Jenkins. “V4 of LEED includes the lifecycle analysis of materials that are going into the building, and Carlie Bullock-Jones from Ecoworks is helping us work with the supply chain to reduce the carbon footprint

associated with the construction materials.

There’s also Chris DeVolder from HOK, the architectural company, who has contributed a lot to the LEED design work.”

One of the ways Mercedes-Benz Stadium is pursuing LEED Platinum is through energy efficiency measures. “In addition to the natural light and ventilation,

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MERCEDES-BENZ STADIUM OWNERS CLUB.

the front-of-house lighting and the sports lighting is LED, so it’s super efficient,” says Mr. Jenkins. “From an energy standpoint, we’re about 29% more efficient than a typical stadium. We’ll also have about 4000 solar panels deployed as part of the project, which will generate about 1.6MW of renewable solar energy each year. What I like about that is it’s incorporated into part of the design that fans are going to see

and benefit from. There’s a new 6-storey parking garage adjacent to the building that’s covered all in solar and is going to provide shade. And when fans come in, solar canopies will cover the ticketing and security screening process. If we just put a bunch of solar panels on the roof and you didn’t see it apart from the drone shots, it’s not something that becomes part of your game experience, but our solar is visible

and it’s serving a function.” Some of the solar energy will be used for 10 electric vehicle parking stations with the capacity to charge up to 36 vehicles simultaneously.

Then there’s the stadium’s water conservation measures. “We’re going to achieve every available water credit under LEED, and we’ll be the first sports facility to obtain that,” says Mr. Jenkins. “That’s important, especially on the stormwater side. With all

EXECUTIVE SUITE.

PIEDMONT CLUB.

NORTH CHAMPIONS LOUNGE.

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100 YARD BAR.

this urban development, when there’s a lot of rain, you have these big storm surges.

So to do our part in the effort to reduce storm surges, we’re going to capture all the rainwater on site. We have a 1.1 million gallon storm vault that we’ll use to collect water off the site and off the building, which will feed to a 680,000 gallon cistern. We’re going to store that water, and we’ll use it to irrigate our landscaping. To us, that’s a really meaningful environmental initiative which also makes us a good neighbor.”

FAN-FRIENDLY FOOD Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s commitment to sustainability extends to the food that fans

will be eating. “We’re going to have edible gardens as part of our landscaping,” says Mr. Jenkins. “We’ll grow food there and use it in some of our recipes in the stadium.

We’re also looking into incorporating that into our educational programs for kids, educating folks about producing healthier food. We’ll also have things like blueberries and apples planted along the entries and perimeters of the building, which will be a fun part of the experience, so folks can walk to the stadium and pick a few blueberries on their way.”

Meanwhile, the food served inside the stadium will include farm-to-table and organic offerings, and will feature

fan-friendly pricing, a major push for the stadium. “We’re committed to making it affordable to bring your family to an event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium,” says Mr. Jenkins.

“A hot dog is just $2, popcorn $2, a refillable soda is $2. Nachos or a piece of pizza is $3. It’s about raising the fan experience.”

Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s concession prices will be among the lowest in major team sports, and for a family of four to consume typical game-day purchases will be roughly 60-70% cheaper than at other stadiums.

IN THE COMMUNITY Mercedes-Benz Stadium is being constructed a little way south of the current Georgia

Kissberg Construction Inc. 1100 Second Street, Stone Mountain, GA 30083 Tel: 770-879-8382 • Fax: 770-879-2897 Email: construction@kissberg.com • www.kissberg.com

Kissberg Construction welcomes the opportunity to support your construction needs We provide services to local municipalities, State agencies, Federal Buyers, Commercial/ Residential markets throughout Atlanta and the Southeast USA.

Female Owned Business

Services: • Demolition/Site Preping • Hauling • Grading • Airfield Repair • Concrete Paving • Driveways/Sidewalks • Remediation Services • Signs & Graphics & Ways findings.

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“WE WANT TO ENGAGE WITH THE PUBLIC AND ENGAGE WITH OUR FANS, AND I THINK THAT’S THE BIG PAYOFF OF SPORTS ADOPTING SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES.”

Dome, in Atlanta’s Westside neighborhood.

“Placing us in the heart of Atlanta is the best way we can make an impact on the community,” explains Mr. Jenkins. “We’re across the street from historic neighborhoods where Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders lived, so the location has a tremendous history, but today there are issues with crime, poverty, and a lack of opportunity. Arthur looks at this new stadium

as an opportunity to make a difference for the community in the Westside. Over the last two years, we’ve trained over 200 local people to participate in this construction project, and those folks can now work on other construction jobs in the area. Our food service partner, Levy Restaurants, have created a culinary training program, teaching people from the community about the food service industry and employing them.

There’s also a focus on creating affordable housing, improving the housing stock, and reducing crime. We view this stadium as a catalyst to make a difference and provide opportunity here.”

A key to these development programs’ future success is the emphasis the Blank Foundation has placed on listening to local concerns and needs. “Frank Fernandez at the Blank Foundation, who is the point person on the Westside initiative, has been having conversations with the community,” says Mr. Jenkins. “Listening and responding are the key points there. We’re here for the long haul, and we’re going to work with the community and provide resources to help accomplish those goals. So I’m very optimistic that in five, ten years, the Westside is going to look a lot different.”

A GAME-CHANGER In Mr. Jenkins’s vision of the stadium, each part of the whole combines to create a unique and extraordinary experience for fans and visitors. “We’re building a worldclass stadium – there’s no question about

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INTERIOR BOWL.

CONCERT CONFIGURATION.

that,” says Mr. Jenkins. “We’re attracting world-class events, with the NFL, with our new soccer team Atlanta United, with MLS, with the SEC, and with the lineup of the college football championship game in ’18, Super Bowl in ’19, and the Final Four in ’20.

But on top of that, it’s delivering an experience no-one has had before in the sports entertainment world. That commitment that you see in the architecture and in sustainability is also going to show itself in the experience, from the fan friendly pricing, the food offerings, to the level of service that you get when you come to Mercedes-Benz stadium, and the entertainment technology that’s in the building.”

As for the sustainability component, Mr. Jenkins sees it as essential that the stadium put its innovations in the foreground for

everyone to see. “We want to engage with the public and engage with our fans, and I think that’s the big payoff of sports adopting sustainable practices. Most of the time when people do things that are environmentally friendly, the folks who pay attention are really a pretty small sliver of society.

When you go to a beautiful, high-performance building like this that has this kind of visibility, I like to think people will see that and say: ‘You know, I could probably do that at home too. I can have more water efficient fixtures at home. I could put in LED lighting.

I might even drive an EV, or I might think about putting PV on my roof so I can create some of my own energy.’ I think we’re making some of that technology mainstream and exposing people to it, so folks start to adopt that at work, at home, and at play.” c

MLS BOWL.

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www.mercedesbenzstadium.com

SUSTAINABLE

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M A G A Z I N E

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