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  4. USTA Arthur Ashe Stadium Renovation

The US Open is the pinnacle of American tennis, turning stars into legends. But immediately after the 2025 champions were crowned, work began to renovate its centerpiece, Arthur Ashe Stadium, into a crown jewel of tennis venues worldwide.

After the tournament concluded on Sept. 7, a sweeping renovation of the Flushing, New York, stadium commenced—an ambitious, multi-phase project that promises to redefine the fan and player experience at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

We have been tasked with delivering the structural design and the entire steel detailing model, typically referred to as the “Tekla” detailing model, which details all the steel connections and forms the basis of the steel shop drawings. Its role is central to the project’s success, which must unfold in carefully choreographed phases after the release of the steel construction documents, prior to fabrication and construction.

The renovated stadium will offer a dramatically improved experience for fans and players alike. New escalators will ease crowd flow, a reimagined promenade will feature expanded food and concession options, and an outdoor video board will allow fans to watch matches from outside the stadium.

The biggest challenge? The three-year phased construction project is required to leave no evidence of construction on site when the annual tournaments return each following year in August. Missing the target date, even a little, would be a colossal double fault.

“This is the only US Open facility capable of hosting an event of this magnitude,” said Ahmad Rahimian, executive vice president for Property and Buildings at WSP in the U.S. and structural engineer of record for the original stadium and stadium roof. “You can’t relocate this event. For tennis, there is no backup venue. That makes this project incredibly unique, but it also makes our deadline immobile.”

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Credit: ©ROSSETTI

Location

  • Queens, New York, US

Client

  • United States Tennis Association

Architect

  • Rossetti

Project Status

  • Under Construction
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Credit: ©ROSSETTI

Staying in Bounds

Continuing the event throughout construction requires multiple phases. Our Tekla detailing model enables early shop drawing production, eliminating the conventional process typically controlled and produced by the steel fabricator and connection engineer.

“The process used on this project is relatively new to our industry and was developed and perfected by us over many years,” said Jeffrey Smilow, executive vice president, managing director of building structures at WSP in the U.S. and the project engineer of record. “It places connection engineering and Tekla modeling under our control, with a single source of responsibility.”

Eliminating third-party connection engineer reviews simplifies and expedites the final shop drawing review process.

“Adding more time to the shop drawing production process would have resulted in additional years of impact on the annual tennis event,” Smilow said. “This approach expedites shop drawing production, reduces client costs, greatly improves coordination with the entire design team and shortens the construction time frame.”

The Ace Team

The renovation of the world’s largest tennis venue includes three major components: an expansion of the concourse level, the introduction of new suite level, and the reconfiguration of the interior seating bowl.

The concourse will gain new perimeter floor space featuring bars and concessions, all supported by a cantilevered design that avoids adding columns—an engineering feat made necessary by poor soil conditions, existing foundation limitations created by the tennis venue’s swampy soil, and leftover debris from two World’s Fairs.

“We’re cantilevering off the existing building,” said Craig Tracy, senior vice president of structural engineering at WSP in the U.S. and project lead. “There’s no room for new columns because of pile caps already in place. It would’ve required massive foundation work, so instead, we’re minimizing that and cantilevering out. The architect was pleased with this solution.”

Inside the stadium, the lower bowl will be extended upward to increase premium seating, while the upper bowl will be partially demolished to make way for a second tier of luxury suites. This surgical reconstruction involves cutting through existing rakers—angled structural supports—requiring precision and stability at every stage.

“It’s major surgery!” Tracy said. “We can’t just focus on the final condition. We have to ensure the structure is stable at every stage of demolition and reconstruction.”

Joining us on the project are a seasoned team of collaborators: AECOM Tishman as construction manager; Rossetti as architect and a 30-year partner with USTA; and Owen Steel as structural steel supplier. Together, this team will serve up one of the most complex stadium renovations in recent memory.

Parallel Progress: The Player Performance Building

Running concurrently with the stadium renovation is the construction of the 300,000-square-foot Player Performance Building. Designed for year-round use, it will house parking, training, medical and amenity spaces for athletes. Interestingly, the new facility will replace the tennis center’s original transportation building, which also happens to be one of Tracy’s first projects with our firm.

“We actually designed the original building to support a future overbuild,” he said. “But the columns didn’t fit the new architecture, so it will be torn down as part of the first phase. It’s the first project I’ve ever designed that’s been demolished, but I’m grateful to be a part of the design for its remarkable new replacement.”

The Player Performance Building project involves the same architectural and consulting firms, but with separate design teams. For this project, AECOM Tishman is the construction manager and Orange County Ironworks will provide the structural steel.

Before one shovel full of soil could be moved, every segment of the renovation project had to pass scrutiny from the New York Public Design Commission due to its proximity to Corona Park.

The commission pushed for more sculptural elements, resulting in the addition of dramatic 110-foot-tall “gate” structures that will serve as architectural landmarks. Studio Daniel Libeskind was brought into the project to assist with the design of these features.

“We developed the gates through the structures conceptual design and now they are in the hands of the contractor,” Tracy said.

The gates are going to be quite a spectacular architectural feature for the stadium.

Digital Collaboration and Speed

Because there was no way to complete the entire project within a 10-month period, construction will take place in between three US Opens. That means everything needs to be “buttoned up” before August. Then they will tear everything apart again two more times.

Most of the major structural work will occur between the 2025 and 2026 US Open tournaments, with finishes and mechanical/electrical work as the focus during the final two phases.

To meet the tight timeline, we took on steel connection design together with the steel detailing work; tasks typically handled by contractors after they are on board. Performing this work during the design phase shaved four to six months off the overall schedule.

“It didn’t look like it was going to be possible to meet the schedule unless we handed them a fully detailed structural model, so that proved to be a critical decision,” Smilow said. “That was in addition to the typical things we do to try and get ahead, like using internally developed automation tools and working on several aspects in parallel, being proactive.”

Real-time collaboration will be further enabled using Revizto, a cloud-based platform that integrates building information models from Revit and Tekla modeling software.

“Revizto lets us flag issues directly in the model,” Tracy said. “You can click on a brace and say, ‘Hey architects, this is going through your window—what do we do?’ It’s a lightweight, web-based tool that’s been a game changer.”

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Credit: ©ROSSETTI

Our fully integrated process incorporates a large detailing operation into our structural engineering process utilizing techniques and tools not previously used in the industry.

World-Class Vision

When the construction trucks line up the moment the 2025 US Open ends, the transformation of Arthur Ashe Stadium will begin—ushering in a bold new era for one of tennis’s most iconic venues.

Although work will be far from completed when the 2026 US Open commences, the changes to the venue will already be noticeable and have a positive impact on the players and fans alike.

“This is a major modernization,” Rahimian said. “The more than 25-year-old facility is being transformed into something truly world-class.”

“With a standard 40-story concrete residential building, everyone knows how it should be done,” Tracy added. “But here, everything is new. It gives us the freedom to try new things. That is energizing and fun.”


Meet the Visioneers

Ahmad Rahimian, Jeffrey Smilow and Craig Tracy are familiar with what it takes to transform world-class structures, leaving their signatures on many of New York City’s iconic buildings. Rahimian’s visualized the possibilities at One World Trade Center, Smilow created the design for 55 Hudson Yards that led to its nickname as “The Spiral,” while Tracy’s structural expertise made the supertall Central Park Tower a reality.

Other challenges that we have overcome

Banner image copyright: ROSSETTI

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