Colorado Soccer Stadium Adds Tensile Canopies for Fan Seating

In collaboration with the City of Colorado Springs, the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Weidner Apartment Homes, and Switchbacks FC, the design team tapped Serge Ferrari Group to incorporate tensile structure canopies over portions of the seating areas. Seeking to create a long-lasting, easy to maintain space, the team selected materials that embodied these notions.

Selecting the Flexlight® Advanced 1302 S2 membrane, the overall goal was to provide a functional, cost effective shading solution for patrons, while adding a unique complement to the large-scale sculpture at the stadium’s main entry. The Flexlight Advanced 1302 S2 combines the latest developments in durability and longevity of flexible composite materials, coupled with ease of maintenance, suitable for a range of applications including stadium roofing and open-air theaters.

Solving for weather concerns

The Stadium sits at an altitude of roughly 6,600 feet above sea-level—the highest elevation of any primary home stadium used by a professional team in the American soccer pyramid through the 2020 season. Due to the high elevation, modifications to the canopy structure had to be made to combat weather concerns, including the wind load and excessive deflection issue.

This posed an issue for installation of the fabric as many adjustments to the structure were made. The fabric and structure had to withstand 150 mph wind speed, whereas the original design was only able to accommodate 90 mph. Working closely with the fabricator/installer DUNN Lightweight, the team was able to quickly and efficiently modify the Serge Ferrari fabric to accommodate the new structure. Each fabric panel was tensioned on top of the prepared steel structures in each canopy section around the field to reach the desired result.