2024-05-03T07:45:53-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150315148/spf-a-s-new-obama-sports-complex-is-inaugurated-in-los-angeles Josh Niland 2022-06-29T17:24:00-04:00 >2024-03-15T01:45:58-04:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/80/80ff9f826bac404c00816c2b875ea483.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><p>It&rsquo;s opening day for <a href="https://archinect.com/spfa" target="_blank">SPF:architects</a>&rsquo; new Michelle and Barack Obama Sports Complex in Los Angeles&rsquo; Baldwin Hills neighborhood. The new development replaces the old 29-acre <a href="https://therealdeal.com/la/2018/08/01/noted-baldwin-hills-sports-complex-to-be-revitalized/" target="_blank">Rancho Cienega Sports Complex</a>&nbsp;and was developed in conjunction with <a href="https://archinect.com/firms/cover/38008/burohappold" target="_blank">Buro Happold</a> and <a href="https://archinect.com/firms/cover/93230768/hood-design-studio" target="_blank">Hood Design Studio</a>.</p> <p>The scheme critically includes what is being labeled as one of the city&rsquo;s first Net Zero Energy (NZE) buildings &mdash; the all-new basketball wing of the larger, 40,000-square-foot facility &mdash; and is landscaped in a grid to evince five distinct ecologies: high desert, canyon, coastal, chaparral, and medicinal.&nbsp;</p> <figure><p><a href="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/27/2707908204778f9cd993866aca7c5112.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=1028" target="_blank"><img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/27/2707908204778f9cd993866aca7c5112.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&amp;w=514"></a></p><figcaption>Image &copy; Mike Kelley</figcaption></figure><p>Hood&rsquo;s drought-tolerant landscape design is also said to be inspired by the early-20th-century abstract painters like George Braque and Fernand Leger. The upgraded facility it surrounds is an amalgam of pre-engineered metal buildings (PEMB) deliberately selected to reduce costs and the environmental impacts of materials used in the project, which came together at the start of 2015 thanks to s...</p>