Articles

September 2014 - Main Speaker

Minnesota Multi-Purpose Stadium: Roof Framing and Advanced Parametric Modeling Solutions

The $975M, 1.7-million square foot, 65,000-seat Minnesota Multi-Purpose Stadium is designed to be the future home of NFL’s Minnesota Vikings in addition to hosting a variety of events, including MLS soccer, NCAA basketball and baseball, high school sports, motocross races, concerts and conventions.

Thornton Tomasetti’s structural engineering, building skin and kinetic mechanization design teams collaborated with Dallas-based architect HKS to design an innovative building that features a series of operable doors that pivot to provide natural ventilation and access to the west plaza. The speakers will discuss the creative structural engineering roof framing design and advanced parametric modeling solutions that were utilized to achieve the relatively light roof framing system. A single monumental steel ridge truss spanning 990 feet along the length of the field will provide the primary support for the roof structure. On the south side of the ridge, the roof will be clad with a clear ETFE system. At 240,000 square feet, the transparent roof will be the largest ETFE roofs in the United States.

R. John Aniol, P.E., S.E. is a Vice President and Regional Building Structure Practice Leader for the Dallas office of Thornton Tomasetti. His more than 25 years of comprehensive experience in structural engineering, includes projects totaling more than 26.4 million square feet (representing over $4.22 billion in construction value. He has served as PM and/or SER on some of DFW’s most challenging projects, including Cowboys Stadium, Amon Carter Stadium Redevelopment, DFW Airport Terminal D and the George W. Bush Presidential Center. He is serving as Structural Project Manager/Engineer of Record (Long-Span Roof) for lead structural engineer Thornton Tomasetti on the Minnesota Multi-Purpose Stadium Project. He is an Architectural Engineering graduate of The University of Texas at Austin.

Bryan Tyson, E.I.T., is a Senior Engineer in the Dallas office of Thornton Tomasetti with more than three years of experience in diversified aspects of structural engineering analysis, design, and advanced computational modeling. He has extensively employed advanced computer modeling techniques utilizing SAP, Revit, Rhino and Grasshopper. He is serving as a structural design engineer for the Minnesota Multi-Purpose Stadium long-span roof project. He has a B.S. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University.