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The new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, home of the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, welcomed 75,000 fans to Super Bowl LIII in a beautifully designed and environmental friendly facility that is devoted to providing the ultimate fan experience. The HOK-designed $1.5 billion stadium opened in August 2017, an architectural icon in the city’s impressive downtown skyline.Amid its extensive post-game coverage of the Super Bowl, ESPN.com’s NFL page featured a story by ESPN Senior Writer David Fleming detailing an important and little discussed aspect of watching a game live…the quality of stadium restrooms.In his article, Fleming quoted Mercedes-Benz Stadium GM Scott Jenkins as saying,“You add a restaurant or a walkway feature to the stadium, some people will use it, but everyone is going to use the restroom. So the functionality, the quantity, the aesthetics of your bathrooms is critical. It seems unremarkable to most people, but, trust me, you invite 70,000 people to your house and you get the bathrooms wrong — you’ve got a huge problem”…”That Toilet seat, is now just as important as your Super Bowl seat.”

Hayward Field has always held a special place in the history and traditions of the University of Oregon, as well as for generations of athletes and fans in the state of Oregon and around the world. As the host site for the 2021 US Olympic Trials and the 2021 Track and Field World Championships, Hayward Field was primed for a 21st century “reimagining” on an epic scale.Understanding that the project’s aesthetic should extend to all areas of the venue, including the restrooms, the design team challenged ASI Group for a solution that aligned with the arena’s sophisticated design. They wanted the restrooms to offer athletes and fans the facilities necessary to maximize their experience, with an added focus on total privacy.ASI rose to the challenge, delivering 144 Alpaco™ Classic Overhead Braced Partitions, along with 36 urinal screens. A perfect blend of simplicity and function, ASI’s exclusive Ultimate Privacy™ offers zero sightline doors and pilasters that meet in a flush finish, with routed, overlapping closures to guarantee total privacy. ASI partitions are offered in a range of standard and custom colors, with crisp design lines, bold hardware options, and superior functionality that’s perfect for high-profile settings like Hayward Field. The self-closing feature of the Alpaco™ doors delivered a sleek, uniform appearance whether the facilities are in use or not.

Birmingham New Street Station was originally re-built in 1967 to accommodate 650 trains carrying 60,000 passengers per day. By 2010 it had become the busiest station outside of London, operating at more than twice its intended capacity. The first half of the refurbishment was completed in 2013. The station’s recently updated configuration should now accommodate a yearly 8.3% rise in passenger numbers. SAS International commenced work on the three-phase project in June 2012. NG Bailey and main contractor Mace installed SAS systems across the platforms, the shopping centre and the concourse. Full scale, physical mock-ups of the bespoke ceiling solutions were built on-site to ensure design intent prior to installation. The integration of fans for smoke extraction and complex wind loads had to be considered to guarantee passenger safety. The wind loads were a concern as trains passing platforms at speed can cause considerable negative loads. Bespoke ceilings comprising fixed angle bulkheads were installed in line with the curving platforms. The typically trapezoidal bulkheads were bolted end to end in order to form a faceted layout to follow these curves. Using shared data from the project’s BIM model, SAS International used a point cloud to measure the platforms and 3D model the panels. The model’s geometry revealed that the platforms were all non-uniform. This posed a significant design challenge. The data required careful analysis in order to achieve a smooth curved line within the platform edge. This was essential to provide train drivers with an unobstructed view coming into and out of the station. The SAS International design team was able to rationalise the number of unique panel types down to four. This overcame the driver visibility issue, ensured uncompromised aesthetics and brought costs within budget. Electronic Total Station setting-out techniques were then used to set out the panels along the curve.