The Audubon Society under-construction Vikings stadium could be a "death trap" for birds unless serious changes are made. The stadium will feature 200,000 square feet of glass.
"The Minnesota Vikings' new stadium could kill thousands of migratory birds unless the stadium's builders take immediate action to incorporate bird safe measures," the society stated.
The glass on the stadium could be extremely reflective, rendering it invisible to birds making their yearly migration, CBS Minneapolis reported. The state of Minnesota requires bond-funded projects to be bird-friendly, but the MSFA recently rejected Audubon's request for the stadium to be made with a safer type of glass. The stadium could use fritted glass, which is made in Minnesota and is covered in small dots that make it more visible to birds.
"We're talking about a billion-dollar stadium here, and the cost to save perhaps thousands of migratory birds - and make the Vikings a global leader in green stadium design - is about one-tenth of one percent of that. We know the people of Minnesota do not want their money killing birds," Matthew Anderson, the group's Minnesota executive director, told CBS.
Despite the possible solution, MSFA does not plan to employ the use of fritted glass.
"We were able to adopt operational guidelines used by other downtown office and residential buildings, we were unable to change the design and do not have the budget to include the $1.1 million needed for bird safe glass," MSFA wrote in a statement to CBS. The Vikings also say they're working with the Audobon Society to use lighting design to make the building safer for migrating birds, Star Tribune reported.
Michele Kelm-Helgen, chairwoman of the Sports Facility Authority, said the plans were created for the building before the guidelines were passed on bird-safe windows, meaning it is not subject to those rules.
ne of the design goals was to create a building that was more connected and integrated with the community than the Metrodome had been," she told Star Tribune. "The ability to see in and out of the stadium was what led us to the design."
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