With a little over two months until the Buffalo Bills expect to have their new stadium substantially completed, some areas inside still need a lot of work.
The enormous space that is to become the suite lounge at the northwest portion of the stadium is one of them. Significant interior and drywall work needs to get done in the space where suite seat holders will come to congregate pregame.
But that work is going on constantly and feverishly around the entirety of the building, according to John Polka, vice president of stadium development for the Bills. The site had as many as 1,600 workers on it at one time.
It’s being done so quickly that the suite lounge – which is below the stadium suites and the exclusive Founder’s Club and can also be used for events of up to 700 people – will look entirely different by next week.
Construction continues at Highmark Stadium on Tuesday. Significant interior and drywall work remains in some areas, but that work is going on constantly and feverishly.
Joed Viera, Buffalo News
“With the number of crews we have here, and the amount of hours they work, this is probably five days’ worth of work,” Polka said during a tour of the over $2 billion stadium. “You apply that throughout the entire building, and you see how this is coming together so quickly. Things change out here constantly.”
The approximately three-year construction project is about 93% complete, and the Bills are now making the move to ramp up the operations portion of the building. That’s about 5 percentage points from where the Bills would like to be by June 1, when construction manager Gilbane Turner turns the project and building over to them.
The team actually has until July 1 to reach substantial completion as part of its deal with the state, which will become the stadium lease holder as Erie County transfers the land for the Bills campus this summer. When the Bills reach substantial completion, the county will conduct a final review and give the team its temporary certificate of occupancy for the building.
The premium space for ticket holders in the 100 level has room for 1,200 fans with a bright-red bar inspired by the Bills logo, a food service and pizza oven area, and a DJ booth.
Joed Viera, Buffalo News
The Bills expect to start hosting events throughout different parts of the stadium starting in July to help make sure the building is operating properly. Around mid-August, the team will host its first preseason games in the stadium. Somewhere in between, the Bills will bring in the Return of the Blue and Red Practice.
“There are a lot of intricacies in the scheduling,” Polka said. “We’re just a few months away from running this facility, which means a lot of the things we’re doing is on the back end – coming in and understanding how to do that.”
Other parts of the stadium are completed or near completion from a construction standpoint. For example, the Field Club, an area that provides unique access for fans at the field level, has been turned over to the team to prepare for furniture arrival in about a month.
The premium space for ticket holders in the 100 level has room for 1,200 fans with a bright-red bar inspired by the Bills logo, a food service and pizza oven area and DJ booth.
Public art will be displayed on the walls, and the team is also waiting on signs, sound systems, and TVs for the space. There’s also access to the Bills player tunnel out to the stadium from the locker rooms and an area to watch the postgame news conference.
“We did a lot of traveling four years ago, and I would say we saw very few places like this in the league,” said Frank Cravotta, Bills senior vice president for stadium design. “The whole idea down here is a lot of fun, high energy, and access to the team.”
Seats are almost all installed
Most of the stadium’s seats have been installed.About 95% of the more than 60,000 seats are in, with the final ones to be done over the next month. The project began in May with bracket supports and vertical brackets being placed before rail mounts that hold and support the main body of the seats were installed.
A look inside the new Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park on Tuesday, as construction enters the home stretch.
Officials have unveiled new details about the three bison that will be installed at the stadium's north entrance. Joed Viera, Buffalo News
In the end zone on the stadium’s southside, seat covers have begun being taken off, revealing the blue and red Bills colors. The gradient seat pattern, going from red to blue and blue to red around the stadium, was done to create a fun design, rather than focusing on building in the team logo or something legible, Cravotta said.
“There’s really no rhyme or reason behind it. It’s purely random,” he said. “The color, when all of these seats are uncovered, is going to be incredible."
Upgrade to audio experience
The audio experience inside the stadium will be like nothing Bills fans have ever heard at a home game.Thirty-two raised speakers have been built into the stadium canopy with hundreds of auxiliary speakers to pick up gaps in sound around the stadium. The current stadium has four raised speakers. Audio testing will start in May.
“We can move sound around the building … and have a lot of fun with that," Cravotta said.
Video boards have been hung on each side of the stadium, but not yet turned on. The Bills are waiting on the production equipment necessary to put content on the boards. The Highmark Stadium sign has been hung over the video screen on the north side of the stadium.
More from inside the stadium
The stacked design of the stadium is now on full display from the field level.The design allows the Bills to bring the seats closer to the field, providing a home-field advantage “on steroids,” and build much larger concourses than at the current stadium, Cravotta said.
The stadium lighting was recently installed, and the lights were turned on for the first time a few weeks ago.
On the north side of the stadium at field level, a Legends Deck has been built, where the game presentation will occur, including the Legend of the Game hype speech, pregame ceremonies, and Bills Stampede performances.
The two tunnels are now cut out and open for both the home and visiting teams on the south side of the stadium. The Bills can also enter and exit from the 50-yard line next to the Field Club.
The natural grass on the heated field is growing healthy and green, although the sideline areas are artificial turf to help keep them maintained – everywhere except for the practice kicking areas.
An emphasis was placed on gathering spaces inside the stadium, based on the popularity of the Miller Lite Brew Pub that was put in at the current stadium during the 2013 renovations. The team is working on a feature bar at the north side of the stadium, two more feature bars in the upper concourses on the sidelines, and the charge bar behind the north end zone.
Grab-and-go food and beverage markets are also being built throughout the stadium. Additionally, multiple ADA platforms around the first level of the stadium help the team exceed accessibility standards.
The concourses will feature spaces that tell Buffalo stories, including hoisted structural steel, a camper van, folding tables, and a scaled Peace Bridge. Radiant heaters have been installed around the concourses.
Outside areas are coming along
Almost 95% of the skin of the building is complete as the final large panels were recently hung.A long, structural row of evenly spaced columns and some smaller, detailed panels around the building are being finished now. Also, structural steel is going up to help hang the Bills and naming rights partner logos on the outside of the building.
The Bills are putting up two exterior markets to provide food and beverage options in the secured perimeter of the stadium as fans walk in. That will allow the team to eliminate smaller portable units that were used around the current facility.
Security screening stations are also being built. They will be separate from the ticket-taking areas. The new stadium has more entrances for ticket-taking because the security process, which includes touchless entry technology at all gates, will likely go more quickly.
Some landscaping has gone in around the stadium, but much of it was pushed to this spring by Gilbane Turner so the plantings did not have to endure the cold of the winter, Polka said.
A lot of work is also going on at Family Circle Plaza in preparation for welcoming three massive bison to be installed in June as a centerpiece to the stadium’s front door.
Final preparations for fans
The team will be working through a list of items to complete in June and July, but that won’t stop the soft opening of the stadium, Polka said.That will likely include using the field club, concourses, and other areas in July for smaller group outings as the team ramps up to use the entirety of the facility.
Every day, items on the project can get delayed or rescheduled – that was the case with the recent vandalism on site that closed the project to workers for four days – but it has not slowed the project's finishing as scheduled, Polka said.
The final 2% of stadium construction work may not include physical work. It could be a lot of documentation that needs to be done. It’s nothing that will be noticeable to fans, Polka said.
“It’s a huge undertaking to get to the point we are at, and now we’re just focused on getting finished,” he said. “When fans walk into this building, they’ll experience it as it was intended.”