About 17 months after D.C. United破土动工on its approximately $500-million soccer-specific stadium in Southwest Washington, D.C., crews completed substantial construction on Audi Field in time for the team to host its first Major League Soccer match in its new digs on July 14.

A+F Engineers Inc.的负责人Dimitrios Frantzis表示，20,000个座位的体育场的加速设计辅助/设计建造时间表“导致了很多不眠之夜……但是我认为我们期待我们得到的时，进去。”他补充说：“对于这种规模和复杂性的项目，这是我们做过的最快的项目。”

Frantzis says a plate-girder design to support cantilevered canopies on the stadium's east and west sides helped the project team to deliver the stadium before the opening match against the Vancouver Whitecaps. He says the 24 tapered plate girders—half of which are 65 ft long and half of which are 116 ft long—were fabricated and installed more quickly and easily than a traditional truss system would have been. The plate girders are 12 ft deep at their deepest point and 21 in. at the narrowest point, while the metal-deck canopies are each more than 400 ft long.

The plate girders also helped to achieve a stringent vibration criteria and helped mitigate site constraints such as a Potomac Electric Power Co. easement. The east canopy spans over the 79-ft-wide by 18-ft-tall easement, which runs the length of the stadium's east side and continues past the site boundaries. "All the movements and the conditions of the canopy forces did transfer through the plate girders that went over the easement," says Frantzis, noting that steel columns encased in concrete were placed around the easement. "We couldn't have braces or things like that to make the frame stiff enough," he adds.

该项目团队（包括Architects Populous和Marshall Moya设计和承包商Turner Construction Co.）也使用了基于云的实时修订模型来更快地工作。弗朗兹斯说：“协调正在实时，实时实时，我们可以实时看到任何冲突和修改。”弗朗兹斯（Frantzis）补充说，预制的制造商自己为板梁的现场预制模型也帮助团队更有效地合作。

这个438,000平方英尺的体育场是在一个狭窄的城市地点竖立的。少于10英亩的地点是联盟25年历史上最小的体育场足迹。根据Populous的说法，奥迪球场也是第一个没有公共停车场的职业体育场。取而代之的是，体育场有83个自行车停车位和190个自行车代客空间，以及几个公共交通连接。Populous的高级校长乔恩·奈特（Jon Knight）说：“结果是一个体育场，有一个城市美学，反映了该地区的工业根源，这使其战略性地利用了土地。”

例如，通过在33度以上建造联盟中最陡峭的座椅之一来节省空间。人口稠密的座位还表示，陡峭的座位为对方球队带来了巨大而恐吓的气氛。该体育场建于高年级，从体育场的外观上可以清楚地看待球场。

The league's 19th soccer-specific stadium also includes 500,000 sq ft of mixed-use retail and residential space. A plaza outside the stadium is designed to also host non-game day events such as food trucks and movie nights. Knight says, "Audi Field embodies the broader social culture and public transit systems of the District."

Originally estimated at $300 million, the project was approximately $200 million over budget. But D.C. Unitedreportedlypicked up the additional costs as the District's contribution for land acquisition and site preparation will not exceed $150 million.

弗朗兹斯说，该项目的速度意味着“许多设计决策必须考虑到时间表，而不是费用。”