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Loretta Fulvio talks about the Cowboys Stadium in Dallas
American architect and Vice-President of the famous Hks studio which designed the revolutionary structure, will hold an update course at Marmomacc

US architect Loretta Fulvio, Vice-President and senior interior designer of the Hks architecture studio in Dallas - during the course for architects scheduled at the next edition of Marmomacc (VeronaFiere Wednesday 29 September-Saturday 2 October 2010) - will personally talk about the astonishing project for the new Dallas Cowboy stadium, where natural stone merges perfectly with an ultramodern and technological structure.
Costing 1.15 billion dollars, the new home of the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington between Dallas and Forth Worth, is much more than "just" a stadium: it is a complex dedicated to sport and leisure that has defined a new level of excellence world-wide for this type of infrastructure. Some general facts and figures, before taking a closer look at the use of natural stone, will help frame the exceptional nature of this complex designed by Hks Sports & Entertainment Group and entrusted for construction to general contractor Manhattan Construction C: it has more than 100 thousand seats, 300 luxury suites, exclusive club halls on several levels and is also home to the Dallas Cowboys Pro Shop. It is the largest national football stadium ever built: the dome is supported by a pair of metal arches 91 metres high anchored to ground at the extremities, while the retractable coverage was designed by the Walter Moor studio of structural engineering. Moreover, at the extremities of the dome there are two gigantic glass walls, each made up of five elements that can be opened in relation to the type of event and current weather conditions.
In short, concentrated technology that nevertheless is finished with extremely luxurious cladding: from the outset, the first visitors compared the entire with a five star hotel rather than a statium. This was also the merit of the decision by Hks to use natural stone for both interiors and exteriors. Vice-President Loretta Fulvio herself, who personally followed up the project, explained in an excellent article by Michael Reis in Stone World that she had visited Marmomacc several times to find the most suitable stones - from every part of the world - to valorise and emphasise the quality of the architectural project. The stone materials were selected to ensure modern yet welcoming facilities throughout the stadium.
The materials were supplied from more or less all over the world - and obviously also from Italy. For example, many of the luxury suites are clad with “Serpeggiante”, a hard, dense limestone supplied by Marmi Manzi in Trani: in all, about 10 thousand sq.m. were used. Marmi Sava, to give another example, processed the special Polar Black marble quarried in Norway never before used in the United States. This particular stone was used in the decoration of "Entrance 365" which provides access to the stadium areas open all year round, together with slabs of Basaltina supplied by the Italian company of the same name.
Numerous producers of marble were involved in the project: Marmi Sava srl, Domegliara, Italy; Manzi Marmi, Trani, Italy; Dimpomar, Vila Vicosa, Portugal; A. Lacroix et Fils Granit Ltée, Saint-Sébastien, Québec, Canada; Island Stone, Santa Cruz, California; Marmi Graniti Favorita, Vicenza, Italy; Arriscraft International, Canada, for exteriors.
Loretta Fulvio will reveal to everyone taking part in the course how these natural stones were chosen and how their intrinsic value was exploited to make a truly unique project even more special.



Verona, 15 / 4 / 2010