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Plans for a new stadium for the Las Vegas Athletics were unveiled Tuesday, with designs by the same lead architect who developed plans for a new baseball stadium in Oakland.Bjarke Ingels runs a company of the same name with Competitor On Wednesday he discussed immediate comparisons to the Sydney Opera House, the lack of a retractable roof and how he compared the proposal to what he envisioned the team staying in Auckland.
Bjarke Ingels Group will work with HNTB to design the 9-acre stadium site as part of a larger 35-acre design on the grounds of the Tropicana Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. Bally’s Corp. and Gaming & Leisure Properties plan to build a new resort at the Tropicana location, but how new construction at Sportsman Stadium and surrounding resorts will fit in has yet to be decided.
Questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity.
In the press release, you included a quote: The stadium “is like a spherical armadillo—shaped by the local climate—simultaneously open and inviting the life of the Las Vegas Strip to enter and explore. In this spectacle City, A’s ‘Armadillo’ is designed for passive shading and natural light.” Where did the idea for the armadillo originally come from?
I mean, we’re not trying to make it look like an armadillo. We tried to consider some of the main qualities of the website and some of the main challenges.
A major quality is the opportunity to connect to the Las Vegas Strip from the inside out and the energy of the intersection of the Strip with the New York, New York, MGM and Excalibur. Basically in the general direction of north. And you also want to face north, plus or minus a few degrees, for the fields.
Then there’s the blazing Nevada desert sun, which rises in the east, arcs across the south, and sets in the west. So we tried to maximize the openness of the Las Vegas Strip and the feeling of being under desert blue skies, while still protecting spectators and players from the effects of 100-degree warm weather.
This led to the idea of ribbons bouncing back and forth, creating a series of very, very generous skylights that allow you to see the sky and, if you’re late in the game, the sunset. And then there’s this huge opening where you can see the entire cityscape and skyline of the Las Vegas Strip. Maximizing the soft daylight from the north, minimizing heat exposure and glare, protecting viewers from the harsh sun while still having a strong presence on the street. You can actually see the surrounding buildings from the strip entering the arena.
Regarding the process, is one year a typical time to complete a project? Is it slow or fast? When you first visited the site, did you imagine what it would look like now? The A-Team once wanted a retractable roof.
We have been on a journey. It’s no secret that we all love what we’ve created for Oakland, obviously. I think I’ve been working with John (Fisher) and Dave (Kaval) for five years or something like that. Of course, taking advantage of Auckland’s climate, we created a completely outdoor stadium. After spending an afternoon and morning in Vegas, it became very, very clear to us that we needed to think differently in Vegas.
We’ve been looking at various versions of retractable roofs for a long time. But I never liked it. I went to the Atlanta Falcons Super Bowl stadium, and they had this legendary Chuck Hoberman-called retractable roof, but it ended up being very expensive lightwells. At the Super Bowl, when the fighter jets flew over the field, we couldn’t see them at all because the roof structure had multiple layers of thickness.
The roof costs the same as the stadium and I don’t think they will ever open or close it as it won’t make any changes. So I’m more passionate about trying to create a permanent solution that will always be beautiful and successful, rather than a bloated, clunky, mechanical thing that might disappear a little but always leave a whole lot behind. There is steel there.
The persistence and lightness of ribbons (arches) are a very effective way of producing long spans. The slenderness of the ribbon edges, the generosity of the skylights…means that we’re going to have a very beautiful and very elegant structure that, at all times, will feel incredibly connected to the Strip.
What are the challenges of Nine Acres? People doubted you could build a house on such a large plot. How did it play out from your perspective? Does it reduce the possibility of a retractable roof?
We ultimately settled on what we thought was the best permanent roofing solution. And, let’s be honest, sunlight and heat will dictate preference for air-conditioned spaces most of the time in Las Vegas – it’s just a fact of the urban climate.
But for nine acres, of course, that’s a design standard. There’s no doubt that when you’re trying to organize the logistics of getting 30,000 people in and out at a game or a concert, you can absolutely use all the space in the world.
We did a lot of benchmarking using Fenway Park and Wrigley Field as examples, which are actually so tight that some sight lines are actually affected. But in reality, we achieved similar or better intimacy without any compromised seating. I think all of these exercises will actually make your trail tighter as well. And then the circular perimeter, combined with the somewhat rhombus–maybe it looks a little bit like a rocket capsule on the floor plan–the difference between those two geometries gives you kind of an indoor-outdoor plaza area around I think the bowl before and after the game Provides a nice waiting area.
Do you need to go back and forth with the resort about what the stadium will look like? What are the interactions? Obviously, you have to design to A’s specifications, but you’re also part of this larger Bally plan.
When we started, the master plan had already been decided between Bally’s and A’s. Now we’ve taken another step forward and we’re working with Bally’s on a closer look to really ensure that the interests, dreams and aspirations of all parties are met as best as possible.
Because ultimately, the more light and air we create around the arena, the more light and air our hotel guests will experience. So, in that sense, right now we’re a little bit away from Class A and we’re trying to keep up with the resorts around us.
There are many comparisons to the Sydney Opera House on the internet. Did you see those?
I’ve seen that, I mean, I understand that and I’ll definitely take it as a compliment. I think it’s one of the most beautiful buildings on earth. To be fair, I think it’s a very different building. It is a circle in plan, essentially a dome. But indeed, the way the ribbons arch and nest may evoke some thoughts about their distant Australian cousins. Regardless, I’ll definitely take it as a compliment.
It’s not something that you look at directly and think, “I want to emulate this.”
No, I think in that sense, I do think the armadillo is probably a slightly more direct reference because the nesting and overlapping of the shells in the armadillo’s skin, of course provides it with its mobility, which is why it can Kind of folded into a curve. But it also allows the armor to provide protection from predators and the environment, and then it can ventilate in the gap between the two, which is basically what’s happening here. The armadillo is probably a more direct reference than the Sydney Opera House.
Yesterday I saw someone saying, ‘How can they possibly spend $1.5 billion building this? ‘ This means they think it will cost more. Are you confident you can do it to that specification?
That’s something we’ve been designing for very closely. We actually have been working with major general contractors during the design process to get pretty realistic pricing. So we’re very confident about the budget. Of course, it’s not completely detailed, but we have a good handle on how much this will cost.
Many A’s fans were unhappy with the team’s move. Is it bittersweet in a way to be a man who engineered the hope of the people of Oakland and now the hope of the people of Las Vegas? Do you like Auckland’s design?
I absolutely love the design in Auckland. When it comes to moving to Vegas, I’m certainly hopeful that the city of Oakland and the Athletics can eventually come to some kind of agreement, as I know the Athletics’ leadership and ownership would want it to be. But when it ultimately doesn’t happen, we have to take a deep breath and try to start with a new mindset.
Our advantage is that we have a deep understanding of the A-Class, and we have many dreams for the design of Auckland. But at the end of the day, because the climate and environment in Las Vegas is so different, we had to start from scratch in a lot of ways.
But I actually think there’s a lot more left in Auckland’s design than meets the eye. Because obviously the main thing that catches the eye in the end is the shell, which is completely different.
What parts are similar but not easily visible to us?
It’s this circular part, and the whole bowl is wrapped by a park. You can really do this as a continuous circling motion. This way you have a series of destinations around the bowl, going down in the outfield, up at the back and then down again on the other side. In this case, they simply stay within the curve of the arch. But a lot of it is programmatic continuity, and many of the relationships between the various amenities and concessions and the Bowl still exist, even if the overall experience is completely different.
Should this be considered a final design, or will it continue to evolve?
I would be very surprised if in four or five years from what we’re seeing now, you won’t be able to identify exactly what we’re showing. That said, a lot of things will evolve and get more details and improvements. But certainly that’s the concept we’re moving forward with.
(Above: Negativ rendering)
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