The Sports and Exhibition Authority of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County had a few tall tasks for the project team on its new 720,000-sq-ft arena for the National Hockey League's Pittsburgh Penguins: a tight schedule, a firm budget and construction on a steeply sloped site. The project team was able to hit those goals on the $321-million, 19,000-seat CONSOL Energy Center while executing a design that includes a 100-ft-tall atrium with a curved spine glass-and-steel wall. Getting there, however, was a balance of close collaboration among project team members, starting with construction and subcontracting contracts awarded while the design was still in schematic phase in late 2008.