Features
Seattle Arena Designs Released
A venture capitalist’s plan to build a new arena in Seattle that could help lure NBA and NHL teams to the region has reached the design phase with the release of three potential looks for the new venue.
City councilors voted in September in favor of Chris Hansen’s $500 million arena project, which will be situated in the city’s SoDo neighborhood on a multi-acre plot of land his WSA Properties group has been amassing.
One design features a broad stairwell leading up to a glass-wrapped, rectangular building, another features a glass oval structure and a third includes a louvered roof, according to the Seattle Times. The arena will reportedly be built with environmental sustainability in mind.
Photo: AP Photo / 360 Architecture
Investor Chris Hansen’s $500 million Seattle arena project finally gets a face with the release of a preliminary design by 360 Architecture.
The designs already have a critic in local architect Lawrence Cheek, who told the Times none of the drawings look as interesting as the city’s aging KeyArena, which was built in 1962 and housed the NBA’s SuperSonics for years.
“It’s appalling that Seattle continues abandoning major civic buildings after just 20, 30 or 40 years,” Cheek said. “I don’t think anybody misses the Kingdome or the old Central Library, but KeyArena is a superb building, and it did not deserve to be orphaned.”
The public will get a chance to comment on the design proposals during a Dec. 11 meeting of the Downtown Design Review Board, the Times said.