SWEET SEATS AT EVERY LEVEL

BY ELIZABETH HERRERA LAUER

Seating can make or break a venue — it’s why people will drive out of their way to the movie theater with the comfy recliners and avoid the one with the ancient, stiff seats. Texas Rangers fans are in for a treat because there isn’t a bad seat in the house at Globe Life Field.

The 40,000-plus seats are made by Camatic Seating, an Australian company founded in the 1960s that has a strong presence in athletic venues, theaters and churches. Manhattan Construction Project Manager Shane Griffin said the stadium seating leader’s product is unique because the seats snap onto an aluminum rail and can be removed individually, making it easy to transform a space for a different event, create a new aisle and complete repairs.

Manhattan Construction Assistant Project Manager Telissa Hubbard, who manages the seating and handrails, said there are five different types of seats, from general admission seating to padded suite chairs.

Hubbard said the seats address the fans’ desire for more comfortable seating at the new stadium. The seats shape naturally to the body, and some of the general admission seats include a padded seat pan. “The suite seats are an executive chair with a high back that is plush and very comfortable,” Hubbard said.

A lot of thought went into even the smallest details of the seats. “Early on in the project, most of my time was focused on the procurement of the material,” Hubbard said. “The process involved verifying the seat materials including colors, end panels, logos, seat-number placement and every little detail that you can think of.”

At Globe Life Field, the seats are secured to precast risers, said Griffin. The lower bowl is all precast concrete by Gate Precast. Manhattan Construction started the concrete structure and foundations in February 2018, then started setting precast by June or July during a process that took about eight months. “It would take you much longer to do that in place than it would off-site,” Griffin said of opting for precast.

“The precast process starts very early on so they can get the casting materials and everything done in the shop, so that after you get the structure poured, they’re right behind you to install the precast risers,” Griffin said.

The precast risers are pre-tension, and Gate Precast comes in and welds them, then does patchwork where the lifting holds are.

While the Camatic Seating system simplifies the process, a project of this magnitude with so many people involved comes with challenges. For example, the use of precast means having to consider increasing the radius of the crane for heavy picks, Griffin said. So the lower bowl is left out so that the cranes can work from back to front.

CAMATIC SEATING has 7 million seats globally that it has manufactured or installed across more than 7,500 projects.

“These panels are 30 feet wide by 6 feet deep. And that’s all concrete that you’re lifting that’s 250 feet away, 250, 300 feet in the air,” Griffin said. “It’s a really heavy pick for the crane. If we did not leave that lower bowl out, then we wouldn’t have been able to set those heavy picks that were in the back. Leaving it out, we reduce the radius of the crane, and it increases our lifting capacity.”

After installation, the risers are protected with a traffic coating and a waterproofing membrane before seating is installed, Griffin said.

It is a versatile seating system, said Hubbard. Brackets are drilled to the precast, then a beam is mounted to the bracket, and then the seats are attached to the beam. “If you need to make any adjustments, replace or rearrange chairs, additional infrastructure or changes to the supports are not required,” Hubbard said. “You can take the seat off a rail and swap one out without any damage to the finishes around you.”

The first seats were installed in October 2019, Hubbard said.

With the sheer quantity of people and tasks that require careful coordination, it has been an experience of a lifetime, said Griffin. The project is estimated to exceed 6 million work hours once it’s done, and that’s with the fast-track schedule Manhattan Construction is under.

WE HAVE INSTALLED APPROXIMATELY 8 MILES OF BEAM TO THE PRE-CAST RISERS TO SUPPORT THE SEATING. SIMILARLY, WE HAVE DRILLED AND SET APPROXIMATELY 40,000 STAINLESS STEEL ANCHORS TO SUPPORT THE BEAM.

–KEN GRIFFITHS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AT CAMATIC SEATING

“There’s absolutely not a typical day,” Hubbard said. “A lot of materials and systems come together or interact so we have to stay in constant communication to make sure we’re on the same page.” That means taking a vision that looks pretty on a piece of paper, and reconciling that with real-world challenges to achieve the design intent, she said.

So Hubbard’s job includes a lot of communication as well as documentation of progress and troubleshooting issues as they come.

But having it all said and done will be a proud achievement for Manhattan Construction and a delight for fans.

Hubbard has a deep, personal connection to this project. Her grandfather, William Edison Springfield, was a professional baseball player, and her grandmother is always eager for updates on the Globe Life Field project. “I’m going to have so much joy seeing the project completed,” she said.

And for Griffin, who has worked on other stadium projects including a renovation of the previous Texas Rangers home, this experience is one that can never be re-created in a construction professional’s career.

“Everyone will come away a much better builder because of it.”

Sources:

www.mlb.com

www.nbcdfw.com