Terrazzo Flooring Delivers a Solid Performance at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse

Home to the NBA Cavaliers and AHL Monsters

Cleveland’s top sports and entertainment venue makes a statement with stylish Sherwin-Williams resinous terrazzo floor.

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Terrazzo Floor in Atrium at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse

In the entertainment world, performers and athletes are intent on making a statement. And the venues that host these entertainers are no exception. Aesthetics reign supreme to give visitors a warm, inviting atmosphere as they root their team to victory or cheer their loudest for a second encore.

That’s why creating an aesthetic statement was critical when renovating Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio – home to the NBA Cavaliers (Cavs), AHL Monsters and more than 200 annual sports and entertainment events. To modernise the 25-year-old facility, the City of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and the Cavaliers invested $185 million to transform Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse into an updated and stunning world-class destination.

Bringing this aesthetic vision to life, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine delivered stylish resinous terrazzo flooring for the venue’s all-new 42,530-square-foot glass atrium and expanded Street Level and Loudville concourses. The multi-coloured flooring accounts for 120,000 square feet and nearly 80% of the facility’s public space, providing a statement piece that will also withstand the traffic of millions of revelers for years to come.

Terrazzo Enables Design and Durability
Gensler, the architectural firm leading the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse transformation, specified Sherwin-Williams terrazzo due to its beauty and strength. The mosaic aesthetic of the resinous flooring, combined with its durable, high-performance properties, made it the ideal choice for the venue’s high-traffic areas that welcome more than two million visitors per year.

From a design perspective, terrazzo gave the architectural team freedom to incorporate multiple colours and patterns into the flooring. Large curves and angles formed from brass divider strips offer colour and design transitions throughout general traffic areas, concession stands and retail areas. In some areas, contrasting floor borders, along with vertical floor-to-wall transitions fashioned from matching terrazzo, help to define the spaces. Even stairs and ramps feature the attractive, durable material.

The terrazzo’s long-term durability and easy to clean surface will help the arena maintain low maintenance costs for the life of the flooring – which should exceed the life of the building.

A Team Approach to Meeting Expectations
In the beginning stages of the project, the Sherwin-Williams team knew few details.

“We were invited to New York to work with an architectural firm we’ve partnered with before, but they couldn’t disclose where the project was located,” said Casey Ball, Global Market Director, Flooring, Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine. “We knew they were interested in terrazzo for a large arena – that’s really it.”

About a year later, the Sherwin-Williams team learned it won the bid and that the terrazzo was for a project in the company’s hometown. The pressure was then on to create an approved, stylistic colour palette for the project.

“Finalising colours for Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse’s terrazzo flooring was a meticulous process. We developed 45 to 50 custom colour samples at our Cincinnati plant for Gensler and the Cavaliers to review. The main challenge was getting the grey accent colour just right,” said Ball.

Another challenge was coordinating the renovation schedule, as the project was developed in phases to accommodate all the new areas. Roman Mosaic and O.A. Bertin, the contractors hired to install the terrazzo, had to work alongside electricians, HVAC technicians and other tradesmen – creating space and time constraints.

“A project of this scale has a lot of variables,” said Ball. “We had to be nimble with so many workers involved. There were times when we needed to push material to the site because one phase was expedited, and there were times when we had to wait our turn for application.”

Flexibility was important throughout the project. During one renovation phase, contractors had to devise a temporary flooring solution until the terrazzo could be installed. They chose to apply the waterborne Sherwin-Williams Tread-Plex™ floor coating as a temporary solution to prevent guests from walking on bare concrete. Although this was a short-term solution, it was expected to look professional. Sherwin-Williams delivered, as the use of Tread-Plex helped to preserve the aesthetics expected at the world-renowned entertainment center.

The terrazzo application itself was a multi-step process, requiring skill and patience. First, applicators shot-blasted the concrete substrate. Then, they applied moisture mitigation coatings and a crack isolation membrane to ensure a durable, impermeable finish. Finally, they performed the fine detailed work of laying the terrazzo system. Applicators meticulously troweled the material by hand, carefully smoothing it to ensure full, even coverage before polishing and sealing it as a final step across 120,000 square feet of the renovated arena.

Final Transformation Beats the Clock
More than a year and 7,500 gallons of terrazzo later, the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse transformation was completed – just in time for the Cavaliers’ season opener in October 2019. Working collaboratively, Sherwin-Williams, O.A. Bertin and Roman Mosaic created this durable, aesthetically appealing floor to enhance the fan experience at one of the world’s top arenas. For generations to come, the Sherwin-Williams terrazzo flooring will carry the footsteps of millions of guests excited to visit this landmark Cleveland destination.


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