ClarkDietrich Wins SFIA “Sustainable Project” Award for Acrisure Arena
Acrisure Arena, located in Coachella Valley in California, is 300,000 square feet in size, has seating for more than 11,000 people, and has hospitality suites and club spaces for premium ticketholders. The arena is home to the Seattle Kraken’s American Hockey League team, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, and includes an adjoining community ice-skating facility that serves as a year-round community gathering space.
ClarkDietrich, a member of the Steel Framing Industry Association, provided 471 tons of cold-formed steel for the construction of the arena.
ClarkDietrich is the SFIA 2024 Industry Project Awards winner for Acrisure Arena in the “Sustainable Project” category. The SFIA Awards entry was submitted by Jennifer Edgar, vice president of marketing at ClarkDietrich.
ClarkDietrich’s win was announced at the 2024 SFIA Awards ceremony, which was recently held live and posted online. The SFIA 2024 Industry Project Awards, an annual awards competition, focuses on CFS manufacturing and construction. This year, designers, manufacturers, distributors and contractors entered a variety of projects in the competition.
Design Quality
Did the project make efficient use of metal-framing products?
Yes, the Acrisure Arena features CFS framing in both the interior and exterior of the project.
The project is currently pending net-zero-carbon certification by the International Living Future Institute. The certification is expected sometime in 2025, according to the Acrisure Arena website. The SFIA Awards judges noted that the Acrisure Arena architect, Populous, also worked on the Climate Pledge Arena, which was zero-carbon certified by the ILFI in 2023.
Installation Complexity
What difficulties existed on the project?
The project had challenges surrounding the excessive heat in the Coachella Valley. The temperatures during construction exceeded 120 degrees at times, which required keeping two indoor ice rinks cold and added many hours of overtime to maintain the tight construction schedule.
The awards submission noted that the CFS installer’s scope of work was completed within seven months. With 20 executive suites and multiple private, premium club spaces, the standards required of construction on the project were exceptionally high.
On the interior portion of the project, the owner hired multiple contractors for tenant improvement and restaurant and concession buildouts. Collaborating effectively with these contractors was crucial to gathering all the necessary information to avoid conflicts and deliver a high-quality project on time.
The dealer installed and integrated Fellert finishes on various wall assemblies with multiple bars, restaurants and jumbotrons.
Construction of the exterior was expedited so that the arena would be ready for hockey season. This required overtime of many of the crews, who worked in the extreme heat. The main entrance features a large tube-steel trellis. Assembling the trellis within the exterior wall systems was a difficult and elaborate task.
Manufacturing Complexity
Were special materials involved?
Regarding the exterior insulation finishing system, the dealer used 2.5-inch foam to achieve a high R-value — the measurement of an insulating material’s resistance to conductive heat flow. The EIFS also helped to stabilize the arena’s interior temperatures and reduced some of the HVAC requirements in keeping the ice cold. Further, the installer incorporated a weather and air barrier system behind the EIFS.
Looking for a reprint of this article?
From high-res PDFs to custom plaques, order your copy today!
