Chicago’s last-ditch effort to dissuade its Bears football team from decamping to a new home in the northwest suburbs has yielded a trio of design alternatives after Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office released renderings for three proposed Soldier Field redesigns on Monday.
Two of the three options include either installing a dome or creating the capacity to do so in a fan experience-oriented renovation that could cost between $900 million and $2.2 billion to complete, according to figures quoted in the city’s plan.
The third proposes the creation of a flexible multi-sport layout oriented more towards concerts and other tourist draws. Further components of the proposal include major transportation improvements and the creation of a new public plaza to be located in place of the existing Solidarity Drive.
The Bears recently announced their desire to relocate to a Manica-designed stadium located 30 miles away in the community of Arlington Heights, which, through the NFL, they reiterated is still the only option being considered. A naming rights deal that could potentially offset the renovation's costs by hundreds of millions was proposed by the mayor's panel as well.
Online, critic Blair Kamin and others were quick to call out Lightfoot’s deferral to private development and the plan's deference towards expanding seating and entertainment options. At a press conference, Lightfoot refused to speculate as to who would pay for the upgrades in the absence of the stadium's anchor tenant, whom she said would be "foolish" not to consider.
1/1 It’s deeply disappointing to see @chicagosmayor, a self-styled progressive, hand over Soldier Field’s future to a private developer who has a vested interest in maximizing the stadium’s size to boost his dubious One Central proposal west of LSD. How tall would the dome be?…
— Blair Kamin (@BlairKamin) July 26, 2022
It is important to consider that the last Soldier Field renovation was an abject failure architecturally. Concluding in 2003 and resulting in the loss of its landmark status, the $660 million Wood + Zapata project “obliterated” the neoclassical stadium’s historic integrity with a flying saucer-like glass bowl and other harmful interventions. The worry for designers now is that particularly the need for expanded dining areas (from 50,000 to 200,000 square feet) and the installation of end zone columns to support the dome would further risk damaging one of the city’s most iconic structures.
4 Comments
That's a misleading and biased view stating that the previous renovation was an "abject failure architecturally". You link an LA Times article from 2003 where most of the negative views are from individuals not necessarily qualified to pass architectural judgement. It's actually a dynamic intervention, which preserved the main historic features of Soldier Field. It does though have limited seating capacity.
The newly proposed scheme(s) is hideous. Architecturally, this would be an "abject failure". If your competition is a new facility designed by Manica (Las Vegas stadium), or the current benchmark in LA - SoFi stadium, this second rate proposal pales in comparison. I haven't seen any of the press releasess on this mention the architectural firm behind its design. Probably for good reason.
While they're at it, they should consider a scheme which builds an entirely new facility on the parking lot directly south of the existing facility. That site was proposed for the new Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts designed by MAD Architects at one time, which was killed due to opposition from "Friends of the Park" and others. They would likely oppose a new stadium there as well, thus remaining a parking lot.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.