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august 2015 | 61 BMO Field Expansion – Phase 1 aerial photography by light imaging/courtesy maple leaf sports and entertainment BMO Field Expansion – Phase 1 by matt currie S ince it first opened in the spring of 2007, Toronto's BMO Field has been primed for expansion. The open- air stadium was commissioned to be the home field of Toronto FC – the first Major League Soccer team in Canada. And as the fledgling team has grown in popularity over the past eight seasons, it's always been clear to the team's own- ers, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, that BMO Field needed to grow as well. "Even when we opened way back when with 20,000 seats we felt that there was enough demand in the mar- ketplace long-term to support an even bigger building," explains Bob Hunter of MLSE. "So we added 2,000 seats in 2009. And then [former MLSE president] Tim Leiweke arrived and we decided that we were going to get very aggressive in the designated player market; we went out and signed three very significant players, and that was kind of the genesis to sup- port the need for the additional seating." To that end, they worked with archi- tects Gensler, the global design firm, to develop a two-phase renovation plan. "The overall vision of the project was to expand the seating, and realize MLSE's original goal of creating a venue and fan experience comparable to the English Premiere League," explains Eric Randolph of Gensler. "This venue needs to be intimate and contained, but capa- ble of being expanded to 40,000 seats for special events." "We've taken ourselves up to a new level within Major League Soccer," says Hunter. "You look at the top-five MLS stadiums, they're anywhere from $120 million to $200 million. In addition to the $62 million original investment, we're now dumping another $130 mil- lion in investment [across both phases of this project]; now you're in the $200 million category. It allows us to get back up into the top third." Due to BMO Field's busy schedule, Phase 1 couldn't commence until early October 2014 and had a hard deadline of May 1, so as to be ready for Toronto FC's home opener. "Easily the tightest schedule that I have ever been associated with," says Neil Barrows of PCL Constructors Canada Inc. "In Canada, when you're tasked with a schedule of less than a year and you stick it in the middle of winter, I won't say it's a recipe for disaster, because we got it done, but it has a number of logis- tical challenges. When we got into the erection of the precast, we had to do a lot of what-if scenarios; we determined that basically the only way to facilitate the overall construction duration was to actually do the precast at night. We had, at the peak of the project, upwards of 450-500 men on-site, and we were roll- ing seven days a week, 24 hours a day." Their biggest challenge was con- structing an 8,000-seat upper bowl on top of the east grandstands, mirroring the existing upper bowl on the west. "We were building the east grandstand when the existing stadium was still in use," says Barrows. "Working closely with the authorities to ensure that the capacity was maintained and there was a safe path to exit while still trying to complete this $60 million-plus stadium in seven months was always a logistical fun part. But to walk out there now, spe- cifically on the concourse level, and see where people flow out of the lower bowl and into those concession spaces on the 300-level was phenomenal. And another thing is that it provides a large gathering space at midfield that has a view back to the downtown Toronto core." A few levels down on the ground f loor you'll find another noteworthy addition: The East Field Club. It's one of two brand-new, high-end lounges; the other being The Tunnel Club on the west ground level, which repurposed old office and locker space to provide patrons with an up-close view of play- ers sprinting onto the field from their locker rooms. "We did a significant amount of research that indicated we had under- ser v iced t he premium clientele," explains Hunter. "Although we had 30 suites and we had a very small club, Rogers Club, which had a capacity of about 350, there was a demand for more premium experience." Speaking of which, the old Rogers Club remains up on the mezzanine level, but it too was treated to a substantial makeover. "It was greatly expanded and enveloped some new office space," Barrows explains. "It involved really stripping the space back to the struc- ture, repurposing it from offices into club space. One of the interesting things that we did in there was sawcut through the hollowcore slabs that formed the structure for the floor of the building, and then create a staircase from the ground floor up to the mezzanine level." The new-look stadium is sporting something else the old BMO Field was lacking: a large production kitchen, allowing food to be prepared on-site for the first time; located on the east ground level, it will service all three clubs, as well as the 12 luxury suites and two larger party suites that were added on the 400 level. Another point of emphasis was increased access to washrooms and concessions, something fans had long been complaining about. The design team accomplished this in one respect by adding new washrooms and points- of-sale, but also by creating easier paths to existing ones. "A critical design feature of Phase 1 was the development of a main concourse that connects the east and west grand- stands on [the 200 level]," Randolph explains. "This contiguous concourse provides Toronto FC's supporters club immediate access to the concourse." "We cut new vomitories into the existing lower bowl on the concourse level," Barrows elaborates, "which allowed the 8,000 or so fans who were in the lower east bowl to get onto the concourse level and not be forced to the ground floor for things like washrooms and concessions." Phase 2 of the expansion begins in fall 2015, at which point they'll be tak- ing on what's arguably an even bigger challenge. As BMO Field inches closer to MLSE's final vision, and prepares to welcome the CFL's Toronto Argonauts as a new tenant in 2016, the stadium will require a few more tweaks, chief among them the installation of a canopy.

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