The landscape for professional sports in Los Angeles has for generations been defined by icons such as Dodger Stadium, Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena), the Rose Bowl, and LA Coliseum. 

This week, AECOM’s new Intuit Dome debuts in Inglewood, adding to that tradition. The $1.8 billion project, by many measures one of the most artistic sports venue designs in recent memory, includes 17,700 seats and comes replete with an 80,000-square-foot outdoor plaza area created by City Design Studio with landscaping from Walter Hood. 

The first permanent home for the LA Clippers was designed to entice fans with an unprecedented gameday experience as highlighted by its centerpiece 38,375-square-foot (nearly one acre) wraparound LED Halo Board — a new record-holder for indoor arenas worldwide. (It has over 233 million LEDs!)

Viewed from the outside, the arena appears encased in an interwoven red diagrid steel frame with diamond-shaped PTFE/ETFE panels that resemble the flight of a basketball sinking through a net. A key design feature is the indoor-outdoor sequence created by its semi-enclosed lobby, which welcomes NBA fans into the arena from the retail and entertainment areas outside.

Inside, a special 4,700-seat section of 51 uninterrupted rows called The Wall makes its design uniquely challenging for visiting players. Fans are brought closer to the action than ever before, as was the "no bad seats" promise of Clippers owner Steve Ballmer. This is also a fully electric operation. Some other sustainable add-ons are the solar panel array installed above its upper-level informal outdoor terraces, on-site battery storage, and a comprehensive waste reduction program.

Writing for the LA Times, critic Sam Lubell says the arena "[pushes] sports architecture in new directions." It is joined on site by some 71,000 square feet of office space, a 25,000-square-foot sports medicine clinic, 63,000 square feet of retail, and a 150-key hotel.