Grandstand

Grandstand is a tennis stadium situated in the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York. The stadium which has a capacity to seat 8,125 people, is owned by the United States Tennis Association. The court is the third largest at the national tennis center, after the Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong Stadiums. Built to host the US Open, Grandstand was constructed as part of a redesign of the national tennis center and is the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design tennis stadium in the world. The stadium designed by Rossetti Architects and constructed by AECOM is named after a 1978 stadium of the same name. History Grandstand replaced a court with the same name that was attached to the original Louis Armstrong Stadium, which opened in 1978 and was decommissioned in 2016. The court was built as part of the USTA's $550m (£350m) scheme to renovate the National Tennis Center which was announced in August 2013 after obtaining planning permission in May of that year. The stadium was designed by Rossetti Architects and has a capacity of 8,125 seats and covers an area of 125,000 square foot. In addition it has 2,000 reserved ticketed seats in the lower bowl, with the rest being allocated on a first come first served basis. Construction of the court by AECOM began in 2015. Approximately 30 percent of the steel structure was in place by the time of the 2015 US Open. Four days after the tournament construction recommenced and the last steel piece was installed in December 2015. The court made its debut on August 29, 2016, the first day of the 2016 championships. Caroline Wozniacki beat Taylor Townsend 4–6, 6–3, 6–4 in the first match held on the court. Architecture The stadium is situated in the Southwest corner of the National Tennis Center to help alleviate crowd issues and to distribute people more evenly. An estimated 20% of visitors to the site had been relocated due to the change. The tennis center was increased by 30 feet to have enough room to construct the new Grandstand court, however the USTA gave 1.56 acres of land back to compensate. The court itself was built on an old parking lot.