The NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks have many mottos attached to them — like “Green and Growing,” “Bucks in Six,” and “Fear the Deer” — but the team pushes one above all else.
Own the Future.
They certainly are trying to do that. Along with a young, exuberant group of players, the Bucks continue to move towards a new downtown Milwaukee arena that will keep them in the city.
This week, the Bucks released new renderings and project specifications for their arena and surrounding mixed-use entertainment district, a plan led by Populous along with Eppstein Uhen and HNTB.
The 714,000-sf arena is intended primarily for basketball but can also host hockey, concerts, and other events. Upper and lower levels will load from the top down for a more efficient seating pattern, and fans will be able to watch the action from the concourses.
The building will have a hand-crafted zinc and glass exterior. A massive glass curtain wall will bring light and views into the atrium. The arced long-span roof will be clad in pre-patina zinc shingles, with six vertical glass “ripples” that allow light in.
Perhaps intentionally, the building’s shape seems to honor Milwaukee’s heritage.
This new Bucks arena render looks kind of like a beer barrel on its side, to which I say PERFECT pic.twitter.com/Snb0POgPcR
— Frank Madden (@brewhoop) March 17, 2016
The 30-acre mixed-use development will have restaurants, bars and other entertainment based uses, including a plaza with a translucent canopy above it.
The NBA mandated that the Bucks needed a new arena secured or else they would be sold to the league and potentially relocated. The team’s current home, the BMO Bradley Center, was built in 1988. The new arena project was announced last April and the Wisconsin state assembly approved the plan last July.
The entire plan will cost about $1 billion, half for the arena and half for the development. The arena is expected to be ready for the 2018-19 season, and the district, which will also add hotels, offices, and condos, will be built over the next 10 years.
The Bucks are also building a new training facility.
Related Stories
| Mar 11, 2011
Community sports center in Nashville features NCAA-grade training facility
A multisport community facility in Nashville featuring a training facility that will meet NCAA Division I standards is being constructed by St. Louis-based Clayco and Chicago-based Pinnacle.
| Mar 11, 2011
Slam dunk for the University of Nebraska’s basketball arena
The University of Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball programs will have a new home beginning in 2013. Designed by the DLR Group, the $344 million West Haymarket Civic Arena in Lincoln, Neb., will have 16,000 seats, suites, club amenities, loge, dedicated locker rooms, training rooms, and support space for game operations.
| Feb 23, 2011
London 2012: What Olympic Park looks like today
London 2012 released a series of aerial images that show progress at Olympic Park, including a completed roof on the stadium (where seats are already installed), tile work at the aquatic centre, and structural work complete on more than a quarter of residential projects at Olympic Village.
| Jan 21, 2011
Sustainable history center exhibits Fort Ticonderoga’s storied past
Fort Ticonderoga, in Ticonderoga, N.Y., along Lake Champlain, dates to 1755 and was the site of battles in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The new $20.8 million, 15,000-sf Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center pays homage to the French magasin du Roi (the King’s warehouse) at the fort.
| Jan 20, 2011
Houston Dynamo soccer team plans new venue
Construction is scheduled to begin this month on a new 22,000-seat Major League Soccer stadium for the Houston Dynamo. The $60 million project is expected to be ready for the 2012 MLS season.
| Jan 20, 2011
Construction begins on second St. Louis community center
O’Fallon Park Recreation Complex in St. Louis, designed by local architecture/engineering firm KAI Design & Build, will feature an indoor aquatic park with interactive water play features, a lazy river, water slides, laps lanes, and an outdoor spray and multiuse pool.
| Nov 16, 2010
Brazil Olympics spurring green construction
Brazil's green building industry will expand in the coming years, spurred by construction of low-impact venues being built for the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee requires arenas built for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro meet international standards for low-carbon emissions and energy efficiency. This has boosted local interest in developing real estate with lower environmental impact than existing buildings. The timing couldn’t be better: the Brazilian government is just beginning its long-term infrastructure expansion program.
| Nov 3, 2010
Park’s green education center a lesson in sustainability
The new Cantigny Outdoor Education Center, located within the 500-acre Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Ill., earned LEED Silver. Designed by DLA Architects, the 3,100-sf multipurpose center will serve patrons of the park’s golf courses, museums, and display garden, one of the largest such gardens in the Midwest.