NSPE Recognizes Highmark Buffalo Bills Stadium Construction Project

The National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) is proud to announce the new Highmark Buffalo Bills Stadium (Orchard Park, New York) as the winning project of the 2026 Construction Project of the Year Award. The stadium fortifies the future of the Buffalo Bills franchise in Western New York by replacing the 50-year-old facility with a modern, state-of-the-art venue. The project scope encompasses the design and construction of a massive $2.1 billion, 1.35-million-square-foot open-air stadium with a capacity of approximately 63,000 seats. Project construction started in 2023 and reached completion in June 2026.

Robert "Bob" Steehler, P.E., vice president/land development manager at LaBella Associates (Rochester, New York), served as the professional engineer of record on the project. Thornton Tomasetti, Arup, Populus, Watts Architecture & Engineering, GHD, Gilbane | Turner, and JM Davidson Engineering DPC, also provided engineering services and support for the stadium's construction.

The NSPE Construction Project of the Year Award was launched in 2026 by NSPE's Professional Engineers in Government Interest Group to recognize an outstanding construction project led by a licensed professional engineer or engineering team. This award honors projects that demonstrate exceptional application of engineering principles, creativity, and leadership while delivering meaningful benefits to the public, the profession, and the built environment.

"The new Highmark Buffalo Bills Stadium project is an engineering achievement, particularly because it was engineered to overcome extreme geographic and climatic constraints, disrupting traditional design, pushing the envelope and advancing current engineering practices," says Rudi O. Sherbansky P.E., the award committee chair.

Sherbansky believes the stadium will serve as an inspiration to future generations of engineers. "This stadium project is the type of engineering feat that makes every child who visits the stadium gaze and marvel at this futuristic looking engineered structure and dream of becoming a professional engineer one day."

Innovative Design
The Highmark Buffalo Bills Stadium project is designed to elevate the fan experience, maximize year-round civic utility, and establish a destination that reflects the pride of the Buffalo community. The open-air design of the stadium was engineered to remain comfortable in extreme winter climates by using the stadium's geometry itself as a fluid-dynamic shield to capture radiant heat and alter wind vectors.

It features a prominent, high-tech kinetic roof canopy, a deeply excavated field bowl, premium hospitality spaces, cutting-edge player wellness facilities, and extensive multi-use plazas. The design also features comprehensive surrounding infrastructure and parking lot redesigns.

Overcoming Engineering Challenges
To protect the playing field from notorious winds and extreme weather conditions experienced in Buffalo, the design required digging deep into the local bedrock. Managing the massive earthwork operations, heavy rock blasting, and complex groundwater mitigation directly adjacent to an active stadium required meticulous structural monitoring and precision engineering.

Designing a canopy capable of covering 65% of the seats in a high-volume lake-effect snow
zone presented immense structural loads. Engineers had to develop sophisticated, built-in thermal snow-melting and high-capacity drainage systems to safely handle severe winter weather without compromising the stadium's architectural profile.

Building a massive steel-and-concrete structure on an aggressive timeline in a harsh winter
climate demanded a masterclass in logistics. The project required coordinating thousands of daily trade workers, delivery of thousands of tons of domestic structural steel, and the strategic deployment of heavy-lift crawler cranes under tight spatial constraints.

A Significant Community Impact
The project represents the largest construction endeavor in Western New York history. It
serves as a massive economic driver, injecting billions into the regional economy, sustaining thousands of union construction jobs, and ensuring that substantial long-term tax revenues remain within New York State.

By anchoring the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park for decades to come, the project preserves a crucial piece of the region's cultural identity and community cohesion, providing a shared space where generations of fans connect. For instance, the Highmark Trail, a 1.7-mile loop around the stadium is designed to be a dedicated fitness trail for Bills fans and area residents.

The project also set a new standard for diversity in sports construction, achieving unprecedented participation targets for Minority, Women, and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses (MWBE/SDVOB) and establishing a more inclusive local construction workforce pipeline.

*Photos provided by the Buffalo Bills