OT: Renderings of new Atlanta Falcons stadium released

Submitted by Don on

Architectural renderings of the new Atlanta Falcons stadium have been released.

http://m.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2014/06/25/falcons-release-9-new-…

Bowl of tortilla chips? Origami? An architectural reference to the Falcons logo?

Maybe it's just me, but I think they might have overdone the whole "rise up" exhortation thing.

jtmc33

June 26th, 2014 at 10:48 AM ^

Don - you are just too out of touch with what's hip these days... the young kids are going to love this.  It's like an Oregon helmet and a Baylor uniform covering concrete and metal 

Don

June 26th, 2014 at 11:05 AM ^

While I won't contest your point—get off my lawn, by the way—what's totally hip right now is guaranteed to be pathetically passé pretty quickly.

I doubt that the architects of an NFL stadium were thinking of "young kids" when designing it anyhow.

While I'm not a huge fan of the basic architectural shapes of this Falcons facility, I do think that it's a huge improvement over the design of the first generation of domes in Detroit, Seattle, Houston, New Orleans, and other cities.

4godkingandwol…

June 26th, 2014 at 10:57 AM ^

... I kinda like it and prefer bold designs to dull designs like Ford Field, which simply looks like a giant warehouse in the aerial view and an office building from street level.  

I will say, though, I don't like the opening at the top of Atlanta's new stadium.  For television viewing, it creates awful shadows, even if it protects the fans from inclement weather conditions.  

Ford Warehouse (with gaudy Ford advertisement on top):

Office building:

LSAClassOf2000

June 26th, 2014 at 11:22 AM ^

I will admit that that I rather like the futuristic look of the place, although for some reason the top view makes me think that people will fly over and see a giant sphincter in the middle of Atlanta, not to mention the way that might play with light and shadow on television for some distracting viewing. Overall, however, I kind of like the side and interior views - it looked like one rendering showed the area just outside the bowls having yard markers corresponding to your apprxoimate location on the field, which I am sure could be useful as a feature. 

Gob Blueth

June 26th, 2014 at 11:24 AM ^

Rainy days will be interesting.  Looks like the cheap seats will be nice and dry while they watch water pour down on the players and front row ticket holders.  In Georgia, it seems like you'd want to enjoy some sunshine while sitting at a game.  They'll also always have half the field in the shade.  Weird choices.

aratman

June 26th, 2014 at 11:32 AM ^

It looks like a warehouse because it is FORD field.  In my opinion it pays homage to the Auto industry that pretty much made Detroit.  Didn't Atlanta just build the dome they have?  I would think the lifetime on a billion or so dollar project should be in the several decade range not in the few year range.

mobablue

June 26th, 2014 at 3:35 PM ^

Turner Field (where the Braves play) is even newer. That didn't stop them from trying to hold taxpayers hostage for a new park, and then moving to Marietta (suburb). I bet they wish they'd started a year earlier - the Falcons beat them to it.

If you're suprised to see pro sports teams wasting public funding on unneccessary new arenas, you haven't been paying attention.

poseidon7902

June 26th, 2014 at 5:03 PM ^

The turner field fiasco is strictly the Mayor's fault.  He played hard ball with them and lost.  While Marietta is a 'suburb' it'd be like building a new stadium at Jefferson and Coolidge Highway.  You hit a ball out of the park and it will likely bouce into the city limits.  I work less than a mile from where they are building the new baseball stadium.  My address is Atlanta (30339).  Across the street from me is a hosiptal and it's Marietta (30067).  They wanted to reviatalize the area near turner field and build a new stadium, but the mayor wouldn't agree to the costs and infrastructure changes that would be needed.  Marietta said, bring it on, we'll take care of it.  

Buccaneer_9

June 26th, 2014 at 10:09 PM ^

I live off of the 120 Loop (30068) & I plan on moving out of CoCo before 2017.  Traffic at the 285/I85 connector is already bad enough now.  Imagine it on game day.

For those that don't know, I85 runs N/S and intersects with 285 which runs E/W at that point.  At around 4pm on weekdays.  All lanes N/S/E/W are parking lots for the better part of 4-5 miles in any direction from the intersection.

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8805431,-84.467799,13z/data=!5m1!1e1

Play with the traffic slider and watch the red lines grow...

 

P.S. The Falcons new building looks like a robot's sphincter.

 

kvnryn

June 26th, 2014 at 4:25 PM ^

Roughly 70/30 private (Arthur Blank)/public. Public investment comes by way of extending an existing hotel-motel tax paid by tourists (which is explicitly reserved for projects that increase tourism/economic activity in the area).

 

This hasn't come without some protest, of course, but the deal is pretty good* compared to the terrible new Braves stadium deal which has drawn away most of the negative attention.

 

*As much as public investment in a billionaire's private playground can be, which is to say not at all.

ej3000

June 26th, 2014 at 4:23 PM ^

Even though it's only 22 years old (it even had a renovation in the last 5 or 6 years) there is a clear business case to build new. I think it all has to do with luxury boxes----the more you shove in there, the more you make versus adding some individual seats that are paid by consumers. Big business pays for the boxes and and there is a lot of fortune 1000 presence in atlanta. ....the case for the braves is a bit different, but there convinced they will make more money by putting the stadium closer to the fan base.

poseidon7902

June 26th, 2014 at 5:09 PM ^

Atlanta is pretty segregated.  People refer to the North as the rich white part and the south as the poor black part.  Turner field is about as far south as you can get in the city limits on 75.  While they have no problem drawing a crowd, there will be massive increase in visibility and attendance because of the new location.  It's just up the road from Home Depot's world head quarters and an attainable distance from the commerce areas like Buckhead, Roswell, and Alpharetta while just sitting outside the Atlanta city limits.  This is definitely a money move both for the owners and the city of Marietta.  Personally I'm more pissed that my commute is going to somehow suck worse than I am that the stadium is moving north out of the city limits.    

HartAttack20

June 26th, 2014 at 2:26 PM ^

I'm not a fan of the view of the ceiling of the place from the inside, but other than that it looks pretty good. It kind of reminds me of some of the soccer stadiums you see built for the world cup with that opening although I'm not sure why exactly. Maybe I'm just stuck in a World Cup mood.

Mike Kenn

June 26th, 2014 at 3:56 PM ^

It is likely that most places you see #RiseUp will be advertisements. The interior of the opening in the roof will be a video board that will display many different things. The large display of RISE UP behind the endzone in that one picture will very likey be advertisements.