- June 2, 2022
- Posted by: SportsV
- Categories: Home News, Industry News, News, Press Releases
Henderson Engineers is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the opening of Q2 Stadium, the first ever major league sports venue in Austin, Texas. The Kansas City-based company, which has offices in Dallas and Houston, served as the lead engineer for the $260m facility, home to Austin FC. In providing architectural lighting, electrical, fire and life safety, mechanical, plumbing, security and telecom design services, Henderson was keen on elevating the fan experience at the MLS stadium.
Most striking of all Henderson-designed features are the lighting systems, which enabled Q2 to be the first ever stadium worldwide to be constructed with tunable RGB LED lights from the ground up. As a result, all 402 light fixtures throughout the facility have colour-changing and colour-tuning capabilities. The stadium’s operations team can instantaneously shift the lights from white to more than 16 million unique colors, allowing them to illuminate the pitch, the stands, and even attendees in numerous hues and patterns.
Mischa Haramia, Henderson’s Entertainment Practice Director who project managed the firm’s work on Q2 Stadium, said:
Most stadiums use fireworks to boost excitement, so it’s an amazing experience to watch everything around you change colour to red, white, and blue during the national anthem, to rainbow when commemorating PRIDE Month, and so on. Austin FC fans are ravenous, and the full-colour-tunable lights are a great complement to the passion they show for their team at every game. The operations team also really loves the experience it provides, so much so that they host tours for the general public and other major league sports teams to specifically showcase the lighting.
Adding to Q2’s stimulating atmosphere are several landscaped green spaces surrounding the stadium – home to Austin FC of Major League Soccer (MLS) – that serve as outdoor recreation areas on game days and public parks year-round. This includes a terraced 2,500 capacity amphitheatre that doubles as a concert venue.
Green credentials
To sustainably irrigate the greenery, excess rainwater is diverted from the soccer pitch via piping and pumping systems that were powered by Henderson and stored in nearby ponds, the stormwater catch basins designed by GarzaEMC, the civil engineer on the project.
The 2022 edition of ALSD International is being hosted at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this September 19-20, and will focus on optimising revenue through New Builds, Renovations & Service Expansions, with Architecture & Design, Fan Experience, Hospitality & Interiors, Premium Seating, Rebuilding & Recovery, Sales & Service, Sustainability and Technology some of the key pillars.
Henderson helped implement a HVAC condensate capture system that stores condensation in a holding tank and pumps it out to irrigate the landscaping as needed. Furthermore, the stadium’s electrical, mechanical and plumbing systems are fully equipped to allow the facility to install a SubAir System for the pitch if desired in the future to supply fresh air into the root zone to help maintain healthy turfgrass.
Haramia explained:
In a relatively dry state like Texas, it’s important to make sure we’re using our natural resources responsibly. We’re proud to have helped provide fans, families, and the surrounding community with beautiful green outdoor spaces that they can enjoy throughout the year while still limiting water usage. The amphitheater is an especially great addition in a city where live music is a beloved part of the local culture. And because we’re diverting rainwater, the City of Austin’s sewer systems are less strained whenever there’s unusually high rainfall or wastewater.
For a seamless technological experience for fans and the operation team, Henderson provided a public distributed antenna system (DAS) and WiFi throughout the 465,000 square foot venue to boost connectivity and power key stadium technology features, including a large LED videoboard. Given the rapidly evolving technological landscape, the systems are designed to be readily adaptable to future innovations.
Haramia said:
Social media, video and other communication tools are an integral part of the modern sports experience, and we made sure fans are able to engage with the game and each other from virtually every location at the stadium. Our venue experts work on projects for every major sports league, giving us firsthand experience on how fast technology is changing and the steps we can take to keep up. So, we consciously provided Q2 with the flexibility to upgrade its WiFi systems, cellular network, and DAS without needing major infrastructure upgrades. That helps ensure the venue can remain at the forefront of tech for years to come.
The Q2 Stadium project team included Gensler as the lead architect, Walter P Moore as the structural engineer, and Austin Commercial as the general contractor. The facility is LEED Gold certified by the U.S. Green Building Council owing to the sustainability efforts undertaken during design and construction.
