Archinect - News

A look at the architecture of LA’s SoFi Stadium, voted today as host of Super Bowl LXI

2023-12-13T18:28:00-05:00

When SoFi Stadium takes center stage as the host of Super Bowl LXI in 2027, the eyes of an unprecedented number of viewers will be tuned in to see the skills of both architects and professional football players being put on display in what is taking shape to be the nation’s most dynamic team sports development.

The new home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers already hosted Super Bowl LVI in 2022 and was inaugurated during the 2020 season following a three-year construction effort and much older development plan that, in the end, awarded the community of Inglewood with a stadium that was previously slated for a Convention Center-adjacent site ten miles further northeast in Downtown LA.

Image: Nic LeHoux

HKS was the architect in charge of the project with help from all-pro landscape designer Mia Lehrer of the Los Angeles-based Studio-MLA.

Image: Nic LeHoux

Like so many of the players on the field, SoFi’s stats are rather impressive. The massive...

Will Austin’s tall-buildings boom survive the skyscraper effect and looming tech recession?

2023-01-19T17:52:00-05:00

But joining the fraternity of cities with supertalls can also be a dubious distinction: Real estate is a lagging indicator, and skyscrapers often arrive after the boom is over, looming half-empty as monuments to a bust. Others, however, are convinced that Austin’s high-rise stampede is just getting started. Given the city’s emerging significance as a next-gen manufacturing hub this building boom could defy the skyscraper effect.

With a slate of high-rises and supertalls, including KPF’s Waterline design and the record-setting Wilson Tower from HKS in the works, Bloomberg asks if the pace of development can be sustained amidst tech’s downturn and the annals of urban economic history. The salvation apparently lies in the influx of manufacturing dollars into the city, along with a downtown area that offers what some consider to be the nation’s highest overall quality of living.

A planned cap-and-stitch project could add even more commercial parcels along a stretch of I-35 downtown beginning in 2025. The risks of repeating the same tax incentive-driven boom-bust cycle that led to so many of Dubai’s architectural headaches a decade ago are not lost on developers. For now, Austin’s only real crisis is the affordability of homes and a dearth of convenient worker housing.

HKS-designed immersive entertainment venue coming to LA's SoFi Stadium district

2022-08-31T18:31:00-04:00

A new HKS-designed entertainment venue is rising in Inglewood's under-construction Hollywood Park mixed-use mega-development. The project is led by experiential media and immersive technology company Cosm and will reportedly be the first location to utilize their domed and compound curved LED technology.

The site sits adjacent to a fellow HKS-designed project, SoFi Stadium. It will feature a 26.6-meter (87-foot) diameter LED dome in a 65,000-square-foot facility that can house up to 1,700 guests. Programming at the venue will include live sports and entertainment, experiential events and content, immersive art, music, and more.

Image courtesy Cosm

“We look forward to Hollywood Park being the home of Cosm’s first venue. Their modern venue design and immersive LED technology will create a one-of-a-kind entertainment offering for our guests and our community,” said SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park managing director Jason Gannon.

Image courtesy Cosm

“From our live 8K immersive production...

Legoland replica of SoFi Stadium the largest Lego stadium in the world

2022-03-22T17:09:00-04:00

Inglewood’s futuristic SoFi Stadium is considered an architectural feat. Now, the structural marvel has been rendered in miniature form. A Lego model of the stadium — where the Rams recently captured their first Super Bowl title in the L.A. area — will be unveiled to the public Thursday at the Legoland theme park in Carlsbad. But don’t call it small.

The miniature SoFi Stadium is now the largest Lego stadium in the world. It will join Legoland California’s Miniland U.S.A. attraction, an area of the park that features models of U.S. cities, such as San Francisco and Washington D.C.

Video courtesy CBS Los Angeles

The HKS-designed stadium is made from around half a million Lego bricks and is 30 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 4 feet tall. Its assembly required more than 6,000 hours of work by 25 professional model builders. The structure arrived at the park in more than 60 pieces and was assembled on-site, which took place over the course of four days.

Image: Legoland California

The stadium’s distinctive roof reportedly required 3,500 pounds of Legos. Inside the model lies a recreation of the L.A. Rams’ starting roster for Super Bowl LVI, along with an audience of 3,000 Lego people.

Goin' glamping: HKS completes its Autocamp complex in Joshua Tree, California

2022-02-16T12:46:00-05:00

Just days after the firm’s extraordinary Super Bowl design fully acquitted itself on the national stage, HKS in collaboration with Narrative Design Studio has taken the SoCal spotlight again under the guise of a new, mid-century-inspired modern clubhouse retreat now completed in Joshua Tree, California.

Photo © Matthew Kisiday

Featuring a 55-key resort and 25-acre campsite, the new Autrocamp retreat is defined by its network of courtyards, firepits, passive design elements, pools, and walking paths that combine to enhance the area’s amazing natural desert landscape. Anchored by an arched Quonset hut clubhouse building, the site expands along a shifted axis to provide a seamless indoor-outdoor transition to visitors, who can each enjoy vistas of the surrounding National Park underneath an ample amount of wind and solar protection.

Photo © Matthew Kisiday

Per the architects: “One of the critical design drivers was to incorporate a feeling of both privacy and community on the property. I...

Super Bowl LVI will light up Studio-MLA’s award-winning Hollywood Park design

2022-01-12T15:22:00-05:00

The eyes of the sports world will soon be on Studio-MLA’s award-winning landscape design as it takes center stage during SoFi Stadium’s turn as host of the 56th Super Bowl in Los Angeles next month.

Around 100 million viewers are expected to tune in to this year’s version of the big game, which takes place in the new multibillion-dollar behemoth designed by HKS. Perhaps the most significant feature of the massive 3.1-million-square-foot stadium complex is the 25-acre Hollywood Park that is coming to life all around it, allowing it to serve in a way that helps the overall development meet its mandate as a vital anchor for the community of Inglewood.

Image © Craig Collins 2021

The park is part of a much larger complex that will eventually take up close to 300 acres and feature two other flexible performance venues as well as a 5.5-acre artificial lake designed by the studio to collect and reuse 26 million gallons a year in water runoff from each facility. What was once an empty racetr...

Olson Kundig designs new mixed-use high-rise along Atlanta's BeltLine

2021-05-21T13:57:00-04:00

A new mixed-use high-rise development designed by Olson Kundig is currently under construction along Atlanta’s BeltLine. Led by developer New City, LLC, 760 Ralph McGill Boulevard is a 1.1 million-square-foot project that includes office space and street-level retail organized around a central public plaza. The project, which is located on the site of a former Georgia Power operations center, also includes HKS as executive architect and Brasfield & Gorrie as general contractor.

760 Ralph McGill Boulevard is currently under construction along Atlanta's BeltLine. Photo: Google Maps/Luke Canan

“We’ve always felt this unique site gave us the opportunity to do something truly iconic,” says Jim Irwin, president of New City, LLC. “The new buildings expand local civic and cultural amenities, as well as introducing a modern new workplace for our future tenants.”

760 Ralph McGill Boulevard was designed to create new urban connections between Old Fourth Ward Park and the rapidly revitalizing A...

EarthCam releases 4k time-lapse of LA's SoFi Stadium construction

2020-12-09T13:47:00-05:00

EarthCam has released a 4k time-lapse video of the HKS-designed SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The video took over 1400 days and four million images to document the construction process. The 3-minute time-lapse captures all 3.1 million square feet of the stadium. Check it out below.

SoFi Stadium, L.A.'s $5-billion NFL football venue, debuts

2020-09-14T18:42:00-04:00

After four years of construction, SoFi Stadium has made its debut in Inglewood with a game between the Rams and the Dallas Cowboys. [...] The complex will play host to both the Rams - which have been housed in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum since returning to Southern California in 2016 - and the Chargers - which are relocating from Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.

Several years in the making, the HKS-designed SoFi Stadium in Inglewood just hosted its first NFL game, albeit without cheering crowds of spectators that may, one day, fill the 70,000 seats.

Does the future of the Los Angeles Rams go beyond football? The new $5 billion dollar stadium impacts more than just fans

2019-02-04T15:03:00-05:00

“If you’re going to build a stadium in a city, it has to play a larger role than the NFL. It has to bring people together in a meaningful way — both on Sunday and on every other day of the week, both in the fall and every other season. That’s the driver, [...] If you’re looking at a stadium project, everybody now is trying to figure out how you make it the epicenter of day-to-day life. Hopefully, this project will serve as a great model for that.”

Although recent events may have put a damper on the Rams historic season, the team's future is still bright. Los Angeles is already home to many championship teams, but what makes this particular team different is what its presence and growth will do for the city. Construction for the $5 billion stadium began in 2015, the stadium's timeline has kept the city buzzing with hope and optimism. Sports stadiums and arenas have been known to transform towns and cities alike. The new Los Angeles Rams football stadium is no exception.

Los Angeles Rams Stadium render by HKS Architects Image courtesy of HKS Architects

Los Angeles Rams construction site Image courtesy of Los Angeles Rams

Located in Inglewood, California the new stadium not only shapes the future of a sports team but of a city. According to Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. he "sees his city rising again after hard times and double-digit unemployment further damaged Inglewood’s psyche following the loss of its identity as a spor...

Inglewood NFL Stadium takes shape as roof truss is set into place

2019-01-03T14:25:00-05:00

Crews from AECOM Hunt and Turner Construction are hoisting the components of the stadium's immense roof truss into place. The metal structure will eventually be wrapped with a canopy of the plastic material ETFE, which will give the structure a translucent coat on which the logos of both its occupants can be displayed. Scheduled to open in 2020, the 70,000-seat stadium is scheduled to host the 2022 Super Bowl, and is also poised to play a key role in the 2028 Summer Olympic games.

Construction of the Inglewood NFL Stadium moves forward as its distinctive roof truss is hoisted into place. Meanwhile, in a recent report from KTLA 5, longtime business owners in Inglewood are already worried that they may have to move out due to rapidly rising rents as the stadium is built.