Wednesday, August 16, 2000
Firm has created leading sports buildings
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NBBJ Sports & Entertainment, Los Angeles, a division of NBBJ Architecture, Seattle, is the second largest sports architecture firm in the United States.
Other facilities designed by the firm include Staples Center and the new L.A. Coliseum, both in Los Angeles; Miller Park in Milwaukee; Safeco Field in Seattle; and Xavier University's new Cintas Center.
Paul Brown Stadium has achieved a first for NFL stadiums: It received the 1998 American Architecture Award. At the stadi um groundbreaking in April 1998, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said: “It's going to take the NFL stadium to a new level. The changes will be dramatic.”
The design is not entirely unique. The opening ceremonies of the 2000 Olympics in Sidney, Australia, in September will take place in the new Stadium Australia, an open-ended, gull winged structure similar to Paul Brown Stadium.
“We are aware of that stadium and we've been through it a number of times,” said Ronald Turner, one of three principal archi tects at NBBJ. “We like it and we think we've taken the idea a little bit further.”
The idea of making the building look light and “almost in motion” was the reason the architects borrowed an Australian icon, the boomerang, to support the gull wing roofs.
“We tried to use the structure, the boomerangs, instead of straight columns, to make the design more sculptural,” Mr. Turner said. “We love the beauty of those boomerangs going around holding the roof. It makes it very light.”
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Firm has created leading sports buildings
