Hello all,

In September of 2017, the brand new home of both the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons was unveiled; the Little Caesars Arena. This 885,000 square foot venue is designed to accommodate hockey, basketball, and concerts with the ability to seat between 19,500 and 21,000 + patrons, depending on the configuration. The core design of the Little Caesars Arena (LCA) is quite modern and an extremely open concept, featuring a large concourse area with a glass ceiling surrounding the bowl. This concourse area showcases several applications of wire mesh and perforated metal for design applications.

However, sometimes depending on design choices or specifications woven wire mesh just doesn’t fit the bill for railing infill panels. This now brings us to perforated metal; sheets of steel (with varying gauges of thickness) that have been punched to provide various hole shapes, sizes and patterns. In the case of the LCA, we can see that some round hole perf  has been utilized in a stairwell for railing infill applications. It is worth noting that not all perforated material is round hole; Ferrier Wire stocks a wide range of design perforated with various hole designs which would also be suitable for railing infill applications. Ferrier Wire is also able to custom punch patterns into material with our EuroMac CNC Turret Punching Machine. 

Lock Crimp Restaurant Front 

Lastly when looking at a storefront located in the concourse, we can see that more lock crimp woven material is being used. However, this mesh was used for decorative screening to accent a restaurant sign. This represents a unique way for wire mesh to be utilized for purely decorative purposes, bringing a project’s aesthetics to the next level. Ferrier Wire has been fortunate enough to have supplied material to a similar project from 2019 that can be seen by clicking here. The specific pattern used in this grocery store was Ferrier Wires Ampliato AL Alto; an aluminum expanded material. 

Overall, the LCA provides a hub where fans of the Pistons and Red Wings can watch their favourite teams while enjoying a remarkable arena with many unique design elements. This blog is meant to highlight how wire mesh has been used to refine even the tiniest details in such a large project. Even though the amount of design mesh/perforated metal used is a drop in the bucket relative to the scale of the project, these details still work to elevate the LCA in both form and function.