Jan 21 2014
Americas-based leading project management consultancy, Faithful+Gould (fgould.com) has been awarded a contract to provide project management services on a series of upgrades to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York, by the United States Tennis Association (USTA).
The contract will run over the course of five years and involve a sweeping transformation of the Center, including the addition of a retractable roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium, infrastructure upgrades, a parking garage and construction of two new stadiums. The transformation will be implemented in three phases, and began at the conclusion of the 2013 US Open, with the goal of overall completion by the 2018 US Open.
On this project, Faithful+Gould will utilize its ePM solution, Oracle Primavera Unifier, as part of the five-year commitment. Our team will help the USTA capitalize on the large program effort to create standards for tracking and managing its project portfolio.
The retractable roof is being designed by ROSSETTI, the original designer and architect of Arthur Ashe Stadium. The USTA has hired Hunt Construction Group to build the retractable roof structure. Hunt has a long and impressive track record of sports facility construction in New York City, including construction of the Barclays Center and Citi Field. As designed, the retractable roof will be constructed of flexible, translucent PTFE fabric stretched over a steel frame and supported by eight steel columns surrounding Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The project's final phase will include the construction of the new 15,000-seat Louis Armstrong Stadium, with the targeted completion date of August 2018. Also during the third phase, the USTA will complete a series of upgrades to the East Entrance, the most trafficked entry point to the US Open.
Faithful+Gould has collaborated with parent company Atkins on this project by leveraging its prior stadium experience at the London Olympics, and including Mike Otlet, technical director and lecturer in stadium design, on our team. In addition to Mike, the Faithful+Gould team includes Tom Jaske, senior vice president and project executive; Cari Stieglitz PMP, implementing Oracle Unifier; Paul Roberts and Chris Spencer, managing project controls; and Walter Bagley and John Diaz as full-time, on-site project managers.