The Golden State Warriors, currently the team with the best record in the National Basketball Association, looks like it could finally get a new arena. And according the latest proposal being floated, that arena on 12 acres would be a centerpiece for the redevelopment of the south half of San Francisco’s Mission Bay neighborhood.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that David Manica of Kansas City-based Manica Architecture, the lead architect on this project, earlier this month presented to the Mission Bay Citizens Advisory Committee what he admits is an incomplete design for what’s being called an “event center.”
His version—which when it was first revealed last September drew jibes that compared the arena’s shape to a toilet—is more conventional than what had been proposed for Piers 30 and 32 by the Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta, whose cofounder Craig Dykers is identified the project’s senior design advisor.
Manica’s concept is circular and mostly flat. It would seat 18,000 people, and include a 24,000-sf public plaza on its southeast side and a 35,000-sf plaza on the Third Avenue side. The east edge of the site would be set up to accommodate food concessionaires and a smaller arena entrance.
This arena had been a political football for at least two years, but opposition appears to have evaporated for a plan that would make the arena a focal point of this community’s revitalization, the Chronicle reports.
Flanking its Third Street plaza would nearly 500,000 sf of office space. The plan also calls for nearly 100,000 sf of retail. “The arena project can shake things up—as a swirling silver counterpart to a static scene, and as an attraction that puts people on the streets during both day and night,” writes John King, the Chronicle’s urban design critic. “The segregation of Mission Bay into two halves, one residential and one commercial, starts to break down. There also will be a renewed emphasis on Third Street, which too much of Mission Bay treats as a back alley despite the presence of the light-rail line.”
“This should really enliven the area, and bring people from across the city and region,” adds Tiffany Bohee, executive director of the city’s Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure.
In addition to the arena plan, there are several housing projects under construction or just opened in Mission Bay. The University of California-San Francisco’s Mission Bay hospital complex opens its first phase in February.
Warriors’ management hopes to receive approvals by next fall, with construction to be complete in time for the 2018-19 basketball season.
Read more about the project at NBA.com and San Francisco Chronicle.
Related Stories
| Mar 2, 2011
How skyscrapers can save the city
Besides making cities more affordable and architecturally interesting, tall buildings are greener than sprawl, and they foster social capital and creativity. Yet some urban planners and preservationists seem to have a misplaced fear of heights that yields damaging restrictions on how tall a building can be. From New York to Paris to Mumbai, there’s a powerful case for building up, not out.
| Mar 1, 2011
Smart cities: getting greener and making money doing it
The Global Green Cities of the 21st Century conference in San Francisco is filled with mayors, architects, academics, consultants, and financial types all struggling to understand the process of building smarter, greener cities on a scale that's practically unimaginable—and make money doing it.
| Mar 1, 2011
How to make rentals more attractive as the American dream evolves, adapts
Roger K. Lewis, architect and professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland, writes in the Washington Post about the rising market demand for rental housing and how Building Teams can make these properties a desirable choice for consumer, not just an economically prudent and necessary one.
| Mar 1, 2011
New survey shows shifts in hospital construction projects
America’s hospitals and health systems are focusing more on renovation or expansion than new construction, according to a new survey conducted by Health Facilities Management magazine and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE). In fact, renovation or expansion accounted for 73% of construction projects at hospitals responding to the survey.
| Mar 1, 2011
AIA selects 6 communities for long-term sustainability program
The American Institute of Architects today announced it has selected 6 communities throughout the country to receive technical assistance under the Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) program in 2011. The communities selected are Shelburne, Vt., Apple Valley, Mn., Pikes Peak Region, Co., Southwest DeKalb County, Ga., Bastrop, Tx., and Santa Rosa, Ca. The SDAT program represents a significant institutional investment by the AIA in public service work to assist communities in developing policy frameworks and long term sustainability plans.
| Feb 24, 2011
Perkins+Will designs 100 LEED Certified buildings
Perkins+Will announced the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification of its 100th sustainable building, marking a key milestone for the firm and for the sustainable design industry. The Vancouver-based Dockside Green Phase Two Balance project marks the firm’s 100th LEED certified building and is tied for the highest scoring LEED building worldwide with its sister project, Dockside Green Phase One.
| Feb 24, 2011
New reports chart path to net-zero-energy commercial buildings
Two new reports from the Zero Energy Commercial Buildings Consortium (CBC) on achieving net-zero-energy use in commercial buildings say that high levels of energy efficiency are the first, largest, and most important step on the way to net-zero.
| Feb 24, 2011
Lending revives stalled projects
An influx of fresh capital into U.S. commercial real estate is bringing some long-stalled development projects back to life and launching new construction of apartments, office buildings and shopping centers, according to a Wall Street Journal article.
| 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.
| Feb 23, 2011
Call for Entries: 2011 Building Team Awards, Deadline: March 25, 2011
The 14th Annual Building Team Awards recognizes newly built projects that exhibit architectural and construction excellence—and best exemplify the collaboration of the Building Team, including the owner, architect, engineer, and contractor.
