Sunday will be a big day for Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals in their fight to be champions of the superbowlbut it will also be a very special and exciting day for the creators of SoFi Stadium, the ambitious and highly innovative venue in Los Angeles (USA) that will host the NFL final.
The HKS studio was responsible for imagining this stadium that opened in 2020 in the worst months of the pandemic, as part of a project of 5,000 million dollars, and that with the Super Bowl it will live its debut to bring the spirit of southern California (USA) to the whole world.
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“We asked ourselves this question: ‘What if this stadium didn’t have walls?'” Fred Ortiz, principal and director of the sports workshop at HKS, told Efe.
“And we said, ‘I could breathe,'” he added.
The diaphanous spaces, the sinuous lines, the almost transparent materials, the fusion of an open and closed environment, and the commitment to the warm and calm Californian light are some of the keys of this stadium converted into a icon of the NFL’s return to Los Angeleswhich after two decades of absence (1995-2016) now has the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers.
From horses to the NFL
For decades, the grounds that SoFi Stadium now stands on were not intended for football but for horse racing.
The Hollywood Park Racetrack occupied that area of Inglewood very close to the Los Angeles airport and that, in recent years, has seen the development of Hollywood Park, a 120-hectare entertainment macro-complex with SoFi Stadium at the forefront.
“We struggled to create an authentic expression of Los Angeles. That required us to be able to understand the demographic diversity of the region, we wanted to adapt the lifestyle and entertainment, the glitz, the glamour…” Ortiz said.
“And we also wanted to give each visitor the feeling of an elevated experience, an electric environment for everyone,” he added.
With capacity for 70,000 people and expandable to 100,000, Ortiz explained that the SoFi Stadium has “many faces” and highlighted that it is like “a welcome card” to the city since it can be seen when landing at the Los Angeles airport.
The proximity of the airport forced the stadium had to “submerge” about 30 meters, but it was not the only peculiarity due to its location since the architects also had to take into account the seismic risk of Los Angeles.
A California canvas
The sunny climate of Southern California, with its promise of endless summer by the sea, was instrumental in the stadium’s conception.
“The materials we use are very transparent, although they do block light to a certain point. But it does look very nice, it does breathe,” he explained.
“The stadium is open in several areas where the air can enter and reach the field, but also the air rises and leaves as something natural. Owners of other teams have visited it and have said: ‘Hey, but where does the air come from? ?’ And it’s that sense of being indoors and with walls but also being outside,” he developed.
This mixed open-closed design is also reflected in the tones of the stadium, which according to this architect are “very low” and very dim so that “the colors of the fans” stand out.
“It’s like a museum: there the walls are white and it’s the art that presents the color,” he exemplified.
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Inside the stadium there is one thing that immediately catches your eye: The Infinity Screen.
It is a huge oval-shaped screen, suspended 37 meters above the pitch, weighing nearly a thousand tons and covering an area of 6,503 square metres, and that can be seen both in its external and internal part.
The gigantic roof -with movable panels and LEDs- that covers the stadium and the immediate areas, as well as the location of the SoFi Stadium in a park open to the community, are other attractions of this installation, which, according to Ortiz, required “a logistical solution that was integrated and impactful”.
For all these reasons, this head of HKS encouraged fans who go to the Super Bowl this Sunday to see “everything that the stadium offers.”
“If you have time and come early, you can take some time to walk around and the landscape of the park is very beautiful,” he promised. (D)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
