Sun Life Stadium Office Expansion
Miami Gardens, Fla.

Concrete was topped off last week on the new office building at the Sun Life Stadium, the home of the Miami Dolphins, the Florida Marlins and the University of Miami football team. We created the structural design for the two-story concrete framed (beam and slab) building separated from the existing stadium by an expansion joint at the floors and roof. The building employs a two-way slab system supported by beams at the column lines, which also doubles as the building’s moment frame for lateral wind loading. It sits on a strip footing foundation and, at one location, a transfer grade beam to avoid existing stadium underground utilities that could not be relocated. A 20-ft concrete Vierendeel frame cantilever between the upper floor and roof supports the building over the existing stadium’s lower concourse. The exterior shell of the building will be completed this year, and it will be occupied in early 2010. Arquitectonica is the architect.