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Best Sports/Entertainment Project: Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, Scottsdale, Ariz. 
Salt River Fields comprises 16 structures with more than 300,000 sq ft of usable space on a 145-acre site on Native American land. The centerpiece is a stadium that seats 11,000. The site includes four major league and eight minor league baseball fields.
Two high-end clubhouses feature amenities such as weight rooms, locker rooms, eight hydrotherapy pools and cutting-edge video-coaching analysis systems.
The construction schedule was an exceptionally tight 14 months because the facility needed to be ready for the start of 2011 spring training. Four separate project teams were designated to manage the design, procurement and construction of the Rockies clubhouse, Diamondbacks clubhouse, main stadium/concourse buildings and the playing fields and amenities, says Eric Grenz, senior project manager with Mortenson Construction, Chandler, Ariz. "We strategically awarded the scopes of work with each of the subcontractors in the same manner," he adds. As a result, the project came in on time and under budget.
As the first spring training facility built on Native American land, cultural sensitivity was employed during design and construction, including the creation of signage in English, O'odham and Piipaash. Tribal members made up more than 27% of the contractor's work force, far exceeding levels in previous projects with the tribe.
"This approach and partnership with the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community has promoted meaningful employment, on-the-job training and work diversity for our community members," says Todd W. Aug'er, SRP-MIC's engineering and construction services director.
The desert environment was factored into the design to ensure a positive user experience at the LEED-Gold facility. During a typical game, the stadium's custom structural steel canopy shields the ballpark and fans from the Arizona sun without disrupting views of the surrounding desert.
The landscaping features plant materials indigenous to Arizona, while a three-acre man-made lake is used to irrigate the fields.
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