News Archives


News Main

Featured Project - Sprint Arena: Kansas City

John Chai
Project Leader

Dowco recently completed detailing the Sprint Center project for Schuff Mid-West Division.  Detailing for this project started in Jan/Feb.of 2006.  The project was supposed to have a 36 week detailing schedule. Like many other complex structures and with numerous revisions, the completion stretched out to this year.

Sprint Center project, owned by the City of Kansas City, MO. is located in downtown Kansas City. The $276 million Sprint Center and the 18000 plus seating capacity arena (home for basketball, hockey, concerts, family shows and special events) is projected to open in the fall of 2007.  The Architect for this project is the Downtown Arena Design Team (HOK S+V+E, Ellerbe Becket, 360 Architecture & Rafael Architects).

The Sprint Center Arena is an oval (egg shaped) structure with a fixed roof supported by 7 main trusses ranging in span from 228’-0” to 334’-0”. The maximum depth for the trusses is 32’-0”. The main trusses were fabricated in two sections and assembled on site prior to being lifted up to the final position.  Framing between these main trusses are 22 secondary trusses and sway frames, in addition to wide frame cross beams and angle bridging members.

Exterior framing for the Arena consists of curtain wall that is curvature in shape both horizontally and vertically.  This wall is supported by 16” rolled HSS members. The radius for each rolled HSS varies along the wall presenting a challenge for Dowco to model and connect. With help from our R & D department, macros were created for connecting these curved members. The layout and details for the curtain wall connections to the Rolled HSS were done by the curtain wall manufacturer.  These details were imported to the Dowco model and incorporated in the shop drawings. 

From the recent construction web cam, it appears that the curtain wall is already up and the roof covering is nearly complete. This structure should be ready for the opening this fall.