A major construction milestone has been reached in The Q Transformation to update and modernise the 25-year old publicly-owned Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Read more
The home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, the Bankers Life Fieldhouse has “pumped up the energy” during games by installing a new audio system from Clair Brothers. Read more
The nearly completed Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center, home of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, will be known as the Fiserv Forum. Read more
Potential suite and seat buyers at the Philips Arena in Atlanta can now take a virtual tour of the venue which is undergoing extensive renovations. Read more
SEDA Seating has installed revolutionary new curved telescopic seating units as part of Vivint Smart Home Arena’s major renovation project. Read more
The NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers have unveiled plans for a $140m upgrade to the Quicken Loans Arena. Read more
The hardwood court that has played ‘home’ to a number of Milwaukee Bucks games has arrived at its new home in Tbilisi, Georgia, this month.
The Miami HEAT and AmericanAirlines Arena have been named the first-ever Environmental Innovators of the Year in the NBA category by the Green Sports Alliance (GSA), recognised for excellence in advancing the sport green movement through their ongoing implementation of sustainability elements in their venue.
GSW Arena LLC announced this week that Gensler – a global architecture firm founded and based in the Bay Area – has been hired to design the interior architecture of Chase Center, the new state-of-the-art sports and entertainment arena to be built in San Francisco’s Mission Bay.
The 17-time NBA Champion Boston Celtics and NB Development Group LLC have announced that ‘Boston Landing’, a mixed-used development in the Allston-Brighton neighbourhood of Boston, will become the home of the Celtics’ new world-class practice and training facility.
It may be retired, but its work isn’t done just yet. The hardwood court that has played home to a number of Milwaukee Bucks games will soon find its new home in Tbilisi, Georgia, thanks to the work of NBA player Zaza Pachulia (pictured above) and Mercer, Wisconsin-based Action Floor Systems.
The Atlanta Hawks Basketball Club and Emory Healthcare have announced plans to partner and build a first-of-its-kind training and sports medicine centre in Brookhaven, Georgia. HOK will be the lead architect for the 90,000sqft, privately-funded facility, which will serve as the team’s official practice site and house its basketball operations.
The Lakers are developing a 120,000-square-foot building, to be located in El Segundo, California, to consolidate the franchise’s basketball and business operations under a single roof for the 16-time NBA Champions. It is slated for completion in late spring of 2017.
The Lakers have been run by the Buss family since Dr. Jerry Buss bought the team in 1979. The team currently practices at The Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, along with the LA D-Fenders and Los Angeles Kings.
Matt Rossetti, FAIA, President, ROSSETTI, which is the Design Architect (working together with the Los Angeles office of Perkins+Will, as Associate Architect, for the project, said:
It was important to the Lakers for the design to reflect their values and create synergy between all aspects of their organization.
Our design team held several immersive workshops with the Lakers’ and D-Fenders’ staff to explore their goals and vision. The design concepts developed through those visioning sessions, particularly the effort to express integration, partnership and legacy within the design, were key to the final design and programming of the facility.”
Perkins+Will principal Carl Meyer, FAIA, added:
The new Lakers training facility and headquarters is designed for optimum visibility of the site and facility, including from the air.
Passengers flying into LAX will be able to see the building and the iconic Lakers logo on the roof. Executive offices will have views of the basketball courts within the training facility, and also of the Santa Monica Mountains and Hollywood Hills in the distance.
LA Lakers Headquarters and Training Facility
Tony Reiner, Senior Design Lead at ROSSETTI, explained:
The first floor exterior building design acknowledges the efforts of the players, starting with the pavement basketball courts of their youths.
The second floor design is inspired by the NBA’s Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, expressed in the rich, reflective and tonal composition of glazing, dark bronze paneling and vertical light bronze signage. We integrated the signage into the design to reflect the Lakers’ partnership with their sponsors.
The Lakers’ legacy is also realized in the form of a centralized basketball court and player courtyard. The integration of all basketball program areas, including players’ locker rooms, lounge and treatment areas, is organized around these two elements. As reference to a basketball hoop’s rim height, this form is divided with a clerestory window at ten feet, defining basketball on the first floor while providing natural daylight into a private player sanctuary.
Operations, management, and executive staff will work from second-floor offices and conference rooms that have views into the ground-floor courts. The Lakers’ development league team, the D-Fenders, will also practice and play on a 750-seat exhibition court. The lobby and other areas will display championship trophies and other team memorabilia, and the design will also embed legacy elements to immerse players in the successful history of the club.
Alice Hricak of Perkins+Will, who led the interior design, said:
We hope that the headquarters and training center will acknowledge the team’s past successes and will help support future success for the entire Lakers organization.
The building is also designed to meet LEED Gold standards for energy savings. Its innovative facade features integrated signage and a pattern of vertical fins that provide light and visibility while screening direct sun and excess heat.
The NBA is going to Disney World. The league says it is developing ‘The NBA Experience at Walt Disney World Resort‘, which will be located at Disney Springs in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
The NBA Experience at Walt Disney World Resort is going to be a one-of-a-kind destination featuring hands-on activities that put families and guests of all ages right in the middle of NBA game action. Visitors will be able to explore inside the world of professional basketball with numerous interactive experiences and enjoy a restaurant and retail store.
Commissioner Adam Silver says the league “can’t wait to bring the magic of Disney and the excitement of the NBA to guests from around the world.”
Disney Springs, the largest expansion in Downtown Disney history, is set for completion in 2016.
The Walt Disney Company and the NBA made the joint announcement last week and also shared that initial development work has just begun, although no opening date has been confirmed.
Bob Chapek, Chairman of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, said:
We’re excited to join the NBA in offering this unique form of family entertainment. It will be a terrific addition to the world-class lineup of shops and restaurants coming to Disney Springs.
The NBA Experience at Walt Disney World Resort will be one of more than 150 shopping, dining and entertainment venues at Disney Springs.
The Coliseum City development project that is designed to keep Oakland’s professional sports teams in the city, remains in the balance but a group of investors has been given a chance to bring finance to the table.
Oakland City Council has granted a 90-day extension to the Coliseum City stadium development group of its exclusive negotiating agreement with the city. San Diego asset manager adviser Floyd Kephart, chairman of the board of Renaissance Cos., is expected to take the lead role in a newly reconstituted group, New City Development LLC.
The group is seeking an additional developer and approvals from the Raiders and NFL, the city and Alameda County before it can begin detailed planning for a new football stadium. The stadium would be the centrepiece of a development that would also include housing, retail, offices and perhaps a ballpark for the A’s.
Mayor Jean Quan said:
This is an important step forward in the work we kicked off three years ago [to keep the Raiders playing in Oakland]. There is room for all three teams in this project.
The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority (JPA), the public agency that manages the O.co Coliseum and the Oracle Arena, in August voted unanimously to approve a ten-year license agreement with the Oakland A’s. The Warriors have announced plans to move to San Francisco’s Mission Bay.
Photo credit: O.co Coliseum courtesy of Oakland Alameda County Coliseum Joint Powers Authority.
A $97 million ‘sensible option’ refurb of Target Center will start as soon as the Minnesota Timberwolves complete their 2013-14 season. The Minneapolis City Council has approved the project terms and a six-member design group will develop separate requests for proposals for an architect and a construction manager at risk to design and build the project. The RFP for design services could be out by the end of the year, with construction starting in 2014. The entire project is expected to last up to two years, with the building remaining open for most of the time. Funding will come from the city ($48.5m), the Timberwolves ($43m), and Anschutz Entertainment Group ($5.5m), the arena’s operator.
The project includes: fan/public spaces – the box office, lobby, stairwell, bathroom, food court and bowl seating upgrades ($27.2m); technology – sound, acoustics, scoreboard, cable, ribbon board and control room ($16.6m); premium spaces and suites – club space improvements on Levels 4 and 5, new club spaces on Levels 1 and 2, and renovation of suites ($13.93m); outside building shell ($13.5m); building operations and back-of-house improvements – energy conservation upgrades ($6.4m); basketball lockers and facilities ($933,000); consultants – architecture and engineering fees and insurance ($9m); project contingency ($6.7m). The Target Center deal keeps the Timberwolves and the Lynx in the building through 2032. Over the life of the deal, the city will spend at least $50m to maintain the building.
