Photo courtesy of Collierville Photography

The FedEx Forum, designed with a uniquely Memphis theme, is the largest public building construction project in Memphis history. This $250 million dollar project was delivered on time and on budget to the City of Memphis by the New Memphis Arena Public Building Authority. Design development was completed in May of 2002 with ground breaking in June of the same year. Construction of the roof began in July 2003 and was completed by December of that year. The FedEx Forum’s first public events were held in September of 2004. Managed and operated by the Memphis Grizzlies the facility is home to both the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA and the University of Memphis Tigers basketball team.

In plan, the roof structure of the FedEx Forum project in Memphis, TN appeared to have a relatively simple steel joist and bridging system. However, as the old cliché says, “the devil’s in the details”. The single biggest challenge that CMC faced was the number of different connections requiring coordination between the joists and the supporting beams. While the circular roof structure appeared to be segmented into nice even pie-shaped wedges that all terminated into a compression ring in the center of the structure, each wedge had its own personality of connections. The detailing variations between the wedges was mainly due to the rotation angle of the supporting cross beams in various locations of the building because of the connections of a multitude of trades (catwalks, score boards, etc.) hanging below the roof structure.

CMC’s detailing and engineering staff worked closely with the detailing staff from the structural steel supplier and also with the General Contractor and erector with multiple visits to the job site during construction. There was a very good collaborative effort by all to make this project successful from paper to Christmas tree. The success of this project is direct evidence that cooperative collaboration between the various parties involved in a project leads to improved efficiency for all.

There is also a very good article in the August 2007 edition of Structural Engineer titled “Structural Engineers Roundtable” that speaks to the lack of collaboration efforts in the steel construction industry and how that needs to change for the betterment of all involved.