St Louis Rams owner Sam Kroenke has revealed plans and renderings for what is being billed as the world’s most interactive and integrated American football stadium.
The US$1.8bn, privately-financed venue is being proposed for the Hollywood Park site in Inglewood, Los Angeles. Architectural firm HKS has been employed to lead the design. While Kroenke has not confirmed rumors to move the Rams from St Louis to Los Angeles, analysts say it is highly doubtful that he would invest in a stadium and not use it for his own team.
The renderings show a light metallic, wave-shaped structure featuring a roof that encompasses the stadium and a surrounding plaza, providing weather protection but remaining open on the sides. The roof has metal borders, but the area over the playing field is made of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) to allow for breezes to flow through the building, enhancing the outdoor feel.
“This stadium grows out of the DNA of the region,” said Mark Williams, director of sports and entertainment business development, HKS.
While the stadium’s roof would be 275ft above the playing field, the building would be set into the ground, giving it an above-ground profile of 175ft, which is much lower than most enclosed stadiums.
HKS describes the stadium as four-sided, meaning the venue is accessible and approachable to the public from 360 degrees. There would be no fenced-off areas at ground level such as loading docks, mechanical yards or dumpsters, this would all be below ground and accessible via tunnels located near the stadium. VIP, event-level parking could also be accessed through these tunnels.
Counting the underground and surface parking, 9,000 spaces would be dedicated to the stadium alone, with others in the nearby office and retail buildings. Backers of the Inglewood stadium estimate they would need a total of about 21,000 spaces for an NFL game, and say there would be roughly 45,000 spaces within a mile of the stadium on game days.
HKS and its consultants are moving into the design development and construction documentation stages of the project. The firm estimates the Inglewood project would take less than three years to build, and the first round of construction permits could be obtained by December, 2015.
March 27, 2015
