Mercedes-Benz Stadium
1 AMB Dr NW, Atlanta, GA 30313
Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened on August 26, 2017, its eight-panel pinwheel roof drawing comparisons to a camera aperture and to Rome's Pantheon. The roof itself was built. What was not ready was the automated system meant to open and close it in minutes at the push of a button.
What got built
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What changed
- The stadium's eight translucent roof panels, inspired by the Pantheon oculus, were built as designed and remain structurally in place.
- At the August 26, 2017 opening, the automated roof mechanism was not functioning, and the roof opened only twice in its first season.
- Contractors continued working on the roof's automation through mid-2018.
- The roof became routinely operational on July 25, 2018; reporting observed it open in about eight minutes, within the supported operational target of less than ten minutes.
- A water leak occurred near the 25-yard line during the January 2018 championship game. Stadium officials attributed it to incomplete mechanization; the sources reviewed do not independently establish that engineering cause.
Why it changed
Stadium and team officials attributed the non-functioning roof at opening to unfinished automation and synchronization work across the eight panels, not a change to the roof's design. The original March 2017 opening target was pushed back three times during construction specifically because of what reporting described as the complexity of getting the retractable panels to operate together.
Details
- Status
- Built, with documented differences from the rendering.
- Where
- Atlanta, GA
- Neighborhood
- Downtown Atlanta
- Developer
- AMB Group (Arthur Blank, Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United ownership)
- Architect
- HOK (with tvsdesign, Goode Van Slyke Architecture, and Stanley Beaman and Sears; roof structural engineering by Buro Happold and Hoberman Associates)
- Rendering credit
- Courtesy of New Atlanta Stadium, published by ArchDaily
- The built result
- Photographed by BullDawg2021, 2024-12-18
Sources
- ArchDaily: roof design renderings, January 2015 archdaily.com
- Wikipedia: Mercedes-Benz Stadium construction timeline and roof automation history en.wikipedia.org
- HOK: Mercedes-Benz Stadium project page hok.com
- Associated Press: Mercedes-Benz Stadium roof opens for business (Jul 25, 2018) apnews.com
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution: roof opened in about eight minutes ajc.com
Research checked . Status and figures are updated when a source changes.
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