'The new University of Phoenix Stadium has a “wow” factor that is going to be hard to beat for a very long time. It is the first stadium in the U.S. to have both a retractable field and a retractable roof. Its 94,900-square-foot retractable natural grass field moves along at 11.5 feet per minute. The facility’s retractable roof is the first to have a system that stores energy during opening that is then used during closing the roof. If these features aren’t intriguing enough, the stadium’s 63,400 to 72,800 seating capacity, 88 luxury lofts, and high-resolution scoreboards should do the trick. With everything this high quality stadium has to offer, it is no wonder it was chosen by Business Week as one of The World’s Ten Most Impressive Sports Structures and by Popular Science as one of the 100 Best Innovations of 2006.

The $450 million University of Phoenix Stadium was designed from day one to set the standard for stadiums around the world, and it is proving to have done just that with its unique design and construction method. In just 36 months, and within the specified budget, the Arizona Cardinals can be proud to have a new stadium to call home.

Led by Hunt Construction Group, University of Phoenix Stadium was delivered using an innovative Design-Build system that paired designers and contractors on a daily basis to solve the many challenges of the unique stadium design. As conceived by Peter Eisenman of Eisenman Architects, the stadium was envisioned as a shimmering metallic barrel cactus planted on the desert landscape. Through pairing Eisenman’s design vision with the know-how of renowned sports architects HOK Sport, the teams of engineers and specialty subcontractors assembled by Hunt collaborated to quickly work out the key aspects of the stadium’s design and construction. ...'