About 17 months after D.C. United broke ground on its approximately $500-million soccer-specific stadium in Southwest Washington, D.C., crews completed substantial construction on Audi Field in time for the team to host its first Major League Soccer match in its new digs on July 14. 

Structural engineer Dimitrios Frantzis, principal at A+F Engineers Inc., says the accelerated design-assist/design-build schedule for the 20,000-seat stadium "resulted in a lot of sleepless nights … but I think we were expecting that when we got into it." He added, "For a project of this size and complexity, this is the fastest project we've ever done."