The Grand Park Events Center marked a strategic partnership between the city of Westfield, IN, and Holladay Construction Group. The $26 million building project is the largest indoor sports arena in the world, housing three full-size sports fields available for both competitive and recreational matches. Additionally, the building includes office space, locker rooms, meeting rooms and a family-oriented restaurant.
When trailblazing with a facility of this magnitude, means, methods, and equipment are collectively part of the design/build process. During the entire building process, the facility evolved and transformed, and changes were made on a near daily basis. Working closely with the owner, developer, and Robertson Building Systems, the building manufacturer, the project team was able to complete this project on time and under budget.
Challenges are expected on any job, and the largest project of HCG’s history was no exception. However, in order to make this project a success and maintain the expected completion date, the project team worked together to find the proper solutions to the issues that developed during the erection process.
The first issue that we faced was that back-to-back tube strut connections at the rafter and columns were found to be an OSHA violation. To solve this problem, Robertson provided a field directive to the project site to field drill holes in the webs of the rafters and columns to stagger the connections. Robertson is now working with its parent company’s, NCI Building Systems, standards team to have a new detail put in place for all future NCI projects.
We came across another obstacle when we discovered a hole misalignment in the rafter-to column and rafter-to-rafter connections. The project team worked together to discover that the challenge was due to improper installation and phasing. The solution came when Robertson advised that each frame line should be fabricated as a phase-and-match drilled in the plant during the manufacturing process. The installer was then required to bolt the rafters and columns together as they were fabricated in certain phases.
The final challenge that we will explore was that girts on grid line five stopped short of tying into the Flex Center building, which was added to the project fairly late in the design process. This problem was quickly resolved by Robertson providing a field directive to extend the girts to be placed at the correct location near the Flex Center.
The Grand Park Events Center is a typical example of how Holladay Construction Group works with the entire project team from the owner and the designer, to subcontractors and manufacturers, to deliver quality projects efficiently and effectively, without compromising the quality or integrity of the design.