Echelon Masonry Case Study – Amway Center (Orlando, FL)

There's a resurgence of "magic" in the air of downtown Orlando, thanks to the new state-of-the-art Amway Center, home of the NBA's Orlando Magic basketball team. Opened in October of 2010 for the start of the basketball season, this 875,000 square-foot facility dwarfs the former 367,000 square-foot Amway Arena and is a central part of a strategic effort to revitalize a downtown area that had seen a dramatic decline in tourism and local business due to the economic dominance of area theme parks.

In addition to providing a multi-purpose site for concerts, conventions, and events, the Amway Center offers a downtown location that symbolically brought the Magic home. For the last 12 years, the Magic had used two separate facilities for games and for training. In addition to the fully appointed sports arena, a full-service restaurant, and a sports bar, the center is also home to the Magic's practice courts, locker room, weight room, and training center.

The Amway Center expects to earn silver LEED® certification from the U.S. Green Building Council, which will make the facility one of the first NBA arenas in the nation to receive LEED certification. Nearly 54,000 Trenwyth® masonry blocks were used in the building's construction. Various shades of Trendstone Plus® polished masonry blocks offer a stately terrazzo finish suitable for these kings of the court. The addition of Astra-Glaze-SW+® glazed masonry blocks in Bimini Blue help mimic the team colors. Both Trendstone Plus and Astra-Glaze meet ASTM C-744 specifications for both stain and graffiti resistance, ensuring lasting beauty for generations of Magic fans to come.

Product: Trenwyth® Trendstone Plus® and Astra-Glaze-SW+®
Architect Firm: Populous - Kansas City, MO
Architects: Brad Clark, AIA; Craig Kaufman, AIA; Randy Dvorak, AIA; Carmen Thomas, AIA; David Kelman, AIA
General Contractor: Hunt Construction - Orlando, FL
Masonry Contractor: Pompano Masonry Corporation - Pompano Beach, FL

Featured Product >> Trenwyth® Trendstone Plus®

Trendstone Plus® filled and polished ground face concrete masonry units have a smooth, maintenance-free terrazzo finish, offering the beauty of natural colored aggregates and the solid permanence of masonry. After an initial grinding process to expose the variegated aggregates, pores on the exposed face are filled with grout. The units then go through a multi-state polishing process and are finished with a clear satin gloss acrylic to accentuate the natural beauty of the aggregates and provide moisture resistance.

Suitable for exterior and interior applications for both load-bearing and non-loadbearing walls, Trendstone Plus provides lasting beauty that is mold, moisture, and fire-resistant. Available in a variety of regional colors that reflect the local aggregate, Trendstone Plus offers the design flexibility of a variety of shapes and scoring patterns and is available with rounded corners and edges for ADA compliance. In addition, as part of Trenwyth's Monumental Series, oversized units of Trendstone Plus are available in most colors to create large-scale walls, columns and arches of monumental proportions.