Architects' Goal: Create a Downtown Neighborhood
By Maria Saporta and Henry Unger,
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
October 9, 1997.
The building of a new arena on the site of the demolished Omni will have a ripple effect on downtown, stretching several blocks away.
Unlike the Omni, this arena's grand entrance on Techwood Drive will be at street level, inviting the public inside the "Atlanta" archway.
It's just one example of how the building has been designed to fit in with the streetscape and welcome pedestrians. You could even change the name of Techwood Drive to Techwood Walk.
The street will go from five lanes of 12 feet each to four lanes of 11 feet to accommodate wider sidewalks and trees. Two crosswalks, and probably two traffic lights, will permit pedestrians to cross from the parking decks into the arena's front door. Project developers also are exploring the possibility of changing Techwood from a one-way street to two ways to make it seem more like a city street than a highway.
The design also calls for a new street southwest of the new arena -- linking Techwood with the Georgia World Congress Center. Plans call for that street to have parking meters so patrons could run in and buy a ticket without having to pay a fortune in parking fees.
"We are trying to create a real city block," said Bernardo Fort Brescia, partner of Arquitectonica, one of the four architectural firms involved in the project. "We thought a new street added a whole new dimension -- creating a main square that is very much part of the city."
Across the street, the existing parking decks will have new pedestrian walkways linking Techwood with Spring Street. Eventually, that walkway could be extended if and when the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia build the proposed multimodal train station on the next block.
The arena's new parking garage -- at the corner of Marietta and Techwood -- will be partly hidden by a festival-like retail development. It also now appears that the historic Glenn Building, which Turner Broadcasting officials once contemplated tearing down much to the consternation of preservationists, will be saved in its entirety.
"Subject to the budget, we are working very hard to preserve the Glenn Building," said Janet Marie Smith, president of Turner Sports and Entertainment Development Inc. The plan now calls for that to berenovated as office space. Its first use will be to house the arena project's construction management team.
The parking garage -- two floors underground and five floors above ground -- is being built with the necessary foundation and structural elements to build a high-rise office building for future needs of the Turner organization.
"There's no program or mandate for an office tower right now," Smith said, adding that Turner, not the city, is paying for the extra structural costs for the future development.
Still, Mayor Bill Campbell believes it is only a matter of time before an office tower will be built on that site -- either by Turner or its parent, Time Warner Inc.
"The street level retail is a most exciting thing for us," Campbell said. "And we also feel confident there will be a Time Warner office building constructed there. It's cheaper to be in Atlanta than in New York City. It is a better quality of life, and because of all the infrastructure improvements, it is a better location."
The thrust of the project's entire design is to better connect the arena, Centennial Olympic Park, CNN Center and the Georgia World Congress Center with the rest of downtown.
"The whole area is going to be transformed," said Stan Kasten, the president of the Hawks and Braves and coordinator of the development plans. "You can get a lot for $70 million to make downtown comfortable, well-lit and a friendly neighborhood."
Construction costs for the public improvements around the arena are budgeted for about $72 million and are being paid by a 3 percent car-rental tax. The arena itself will cost Turner Broadcasting $141 million to build.
"It's going to be an incredible enhancement of the entire area paid for by a very small car-rental fee at the airport," Campbell said of the public improvements. "I'm particularly pleased it is going to bring a lot more people to downtown Atlanta at night."
Michael Dobbins, planning commissioner for the city of Atlanta, said the design has come a long way from his earlier discussions with the architects.
"They have worked very hard to create an environment that can fit into the grain of downtown and Centennial Olympic Park," Dobbins said.
Still unknown is how the existing CNN Center will be renovated in conjunction with the arena project.
"I'm excited because it becomes a destination spot for all of downtown," said Charlie Battle, president of the business group Central Atlanta Progress. "It can be a catalyst for redevelopment for the entire area."
That's just what Fort Brescia envisions.
"We wanted it to be a fun place to go that would fit in with the rest of the city," he said. "We saw it very much as the beginning of a neighborhood."
ATLANTA - The Associated Press - Ted Turner wants to name Atlanta's new hockey team the Thrashers, after the Georgia state bird, and that's that. You don't mess with a billionaire who just challenged rival media mogul Rupert Murdoch to a boxing match. Besides, Thrashers is a tough-sounding name even if it does come from a small bird known for its beautiful song. ''It has to go through the NHL's review process but that's the name - I just got off the phone with Ted,'' Harvey Schiller, president of Turner Sports, said on Friday. The NHL expansion committee recommended Atlanta and three other cities for franchises on Tuesday. Final approval by the Board of Governors, considered a formality, should come on June 25. Atlanta would join the league in 1999 when a new 20,000-seat arena is completed. The new team will be owned by Turner Broadcasting System and its parent company, Time Warner, the world's largest media conglomerate. Schiller said more research will be done before announcing the new club's colors.
| |
The Omni Coliseum
|
The Philips Arena
|
Seating Capacity:
Hockey:
Basketball:
Concerts:
|
15,179
16,378
17,000
|
18,545
18,729
21,000
|
|
Luxury Suites:
|
16
|
96
|
Party/Rental Suites:
Public Restrooms:
Food Outlets:
Restaurants/Clubs:
Retail Outlets:
|
0
12
13
2
0
|
6
26
23
4
12
|
|
Opening Date:
|
October 1972
(demolished in July 1997)
|
September 1999
|
|
Total Parking Spaces:
|
2,345
|
4,345
|
|
Home Teams:
|
NBA's Atlanta Hawks
(1972-1997)
NHL's Atlanta Flames
(1972-1980)
IHL's Atlanta Knights
(1992-1996)
|
Atlanta Hawks
Atlanta NHL expansion team
|
|
Cost of Construction:
|
$17 Million
|
$213 Million including
construction, financing
and public improvements
|
|
Management Company:
|
Turner Broadcasting/Atlanta
Coliseum, Inc.
|
Turner Arena Operations,
Inc.
|
|
Owner:
|
Atlanta-Fulton County
Recreation Authority
|
Atlanta-Fulton County
Recreation Authority
|
Jazzy Nest for Hawks, Thrashers
August 23, 1999
By Nadine M. Post
Low-lying like a nesting bird, Atlanta's Philips Arena is designed to link. The angular arena provides a public circulation corridor, open when the arena is dark. The covered "street" connects a marta light-rail station, the nearby convention center and CNN Center—the headquarters of the owner of basketball's Hawks and hockey's new franchise, The Thrashers.
"We worked to make the building part of the city," says Bernardo Fort-Brescia, principal of the Miami-based Arquitectonica and consultant to architect of record HOK Sport. The $213-million development, with the $122-million Atlanta-Fulton County-owned arena, includes $40 million in public improvements to the surrounding area, including a rebuilt marta station and parking.
Making the arena fit into the city was no small task, considering the street grid is all viaducts over railroad tracks. The solution was to line up the street entrance with an existing elevated roadway and have a section of the main concourse, a sports-themed mini-mall, serve as a pedestrian byway to the attached CNN Center. "We are taking an otherwise mundane concourse and ratcheting it up several decibels," says Janet Marie Smith, president of developer Turner Sports & Entertainment Development, Atlanta.
Turner wanted the building to have a postcard presence, says Smith. For that, the architect designed a total 200,000-sq-ft roof with three sloping and pitching elevations, rotated at different angles to the square site. The jagged, irregular roof line has been likened to a splayed-out hand of bent playing cards or the open wings of a bird.
To make the arena even more recognizable as a city icon, Atlanta is spelled out by the structural supports for the lowest roof, a large entrance canopy.
Turner wanted something distinguishing inside the bowl as well. In a departure from the norm of having suites between lower and upper concourses, Atlanta's suites are stacked along one sideline. They are framed in concrete, much like a hotel. The configuration brings the upper concourse closer to the action—affording a more intimate feeling for fans, says Rick Martin, principal in charge for HOK Sport, Kansas City, Mo. There are also efficiencies. All the suite services, restaurants, lounges, elevators, parking, are collected on one side, and there is no need for a separate suites concourse.
Mobilization began in September 1997. Soon, the contractor discovered a mistake on the plans. Instead of being attached at the hip to CNN Center, part of the arena was in it.
The correction was made, but then part of the marta station was in the way. Further, the intention had been to use many of the predecessor Omni Arena foundations. The slight rotation away from CNN Center meant fewer line-ups. Worse, when driving piles, the contractor came upon lots of obstructions, even a concrete vault, and soil was contaminated.
It cost $4 million instead of $1 million to clean up the site. "Once we got out of the ground, we left a lot of sins behind," says Len Moser, arena manager for program manager Barton Malow Co., Southfield, Mich.
Superstructure foundations took a year instead of four months, says Robert Evans, project superintendent for the local construction manager, Atlanta Arena Constructors (AAC), a joint venture of Beers Construction Co., Holder Construction Co., H.J. Russell & Co. and C.D. Moody Construction Co. By resequencing other work, the foundation snags only delayed the concrete superstructure 60 days and are not delaying the coming Sept. 2 opening, says AAC To make up for lost time, AAC also used flying table forms on the six-story suites building.
Tragedy hit last fall when two ironworkers were killed installing precast panels. Federal safety officials later issued two citations to the steel erector.
Work on the roof was not simple. "Lots of skewed, untypical connections was the norm on this job," says Paul J. Gordon, vice president of engineering with steel subcontractor Qualico Steel Co. Inc., Webb, Ala. The middle roof, sloping and curving in a skewed line, was more difficult to detail than the main upper roof. The architects "couldn't have made it harder," he says.
The other difficult item was the double, 272-ft-long, 47-ft-deep tied-arch transfer truss, designed to cut the main span from 330 to 220 ft. The erector began by setting up and guying three, 117-ft-tall falsework towers at quarter points along the truss length, as the engineer had indicated on the drawings. To avoid having to put in a shoring tower foundation, the slab was reinforced to take the loads of the tower, says Grady Lockhart, supervisor for Williams Erection Co., Smyrna, Ga.
The double top-chord truss was set on shoring towers in nearly three equal lengths. Then the tension ties and compression arches were assembled in the air, through the shoring towers. After completion, the towers were jacked down and removed. The procedure went as planned but "erection was difficult," says the erector, because the assembly had to be kept level to a certain tolerance and the truss bears on a double column on each end that is on a bearing that moves.
Next, two falsework towers were installed on the longer side of the roof's trapezoidal plan, to erect the 43-ft-deep proscenium truss, a 12.5-ft-deep top chord truss with a 5-ft-deep bottom chord truss, with intermediate members. The first interior main span, a 12-5-ft-deep shallow truss went up along with the 200-ft-long proscenium, plus infill framing. Shoring towers were then removed and set up for the proscenium truss opposite, where the procedure was repeated.
The next erection sequence involved the remaining six interior 220-ft-long main-span trusses and their bridging trusses. "We worked one bay at a time till the middle," says Lockhart. "Every truss is set to a different camber. The two in the center support the scoreboard," he adds.
Concurrently, Williams erected the low roofs with separate crews.
Gordon says one of the problems with the high roof was that the engineer provided differential deflection criteria after detailing had commenced. "We had to adjust all our connections for a theoretical slope," he says, adding that it would have been easier to have the information earlier.
Last-minute changes were the norm throughout the fast-tracked project, says those involved. It was a tone set by Turner, they concur, in an attempt to provide a better arena. "The client's philosophy is that we can make changes until 12 o'clock," says one member of the construction team. "If the paint's not dry, we can wash it off and paint a different color," he adds. All have their fingers crossed that the paint will be dry by the impending opening on September 2, 1999.
TURNER LIMITING SPONSORS IN NEW PHILIPS ARENA
September 9, 1999
Copyright 1999 MediaVentures
Turner Broadcasting System has decided to limit to ten the number of sponsors in the new Philips Arena which opens this fall. The venue will be the home of the NHL Thrashers and NBA Hawks. The companies signed up for the program include Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Home Depot, Powertel, United Parcel Service, AnheuserBusch, Bank of America, MediaOne and WebMD, an online medical information provider. Prices were not disclosed, but were estimated at $2.3 million a year, including broadcast advertising.
Signage in the arena will be coordinated and will feature only one sponsor at a time. During Hawks games, a sponsor will get 30 seconds of exposure before the signs change. During Thrasher games the time increases to 45 seconds. The sponsorships do not preclude the teams from selling a limited amount of other advertising that will only appear on dasher boards or table banners.
The agreements also give some sponsors unique promotion abilities. Delta will offer a 20-seat, two-level lounge that overlooks the court. Six of the seats will be motorized with electric footrests, adjustable head rests, personal lighting and video screens. The seats are identical to those in the airline's new BusinessElite overseas flights. Delta will offer the seats to selected clients and a lucky few fans who will be chosen at random in the arena.
Powertel will have retail space in the arena and will offer special telephones bearing team logos. Bank of America will sponsor a club for suite and club seat holders.
ATLANTA'S PHILIPS ARENA OPENS FOR PRE-SEASON PLAY
September 23, 1999
Copyright 1999 MediaVentures
Fans got their first chance to see the new Philips Arena in action last weekend during an exhibition game between the expansion Atlanta Thrashers and the New Jersey
Devils. The official grand opening is today. The opening won generally strong praise, especially from those in the venue's luxury suites. The arena features a new wrinkle in arena
design with the 90 suites stacked vertically in five levels in the center of the bowl.
Workers are still putting the final touches on the venue. The Thrasher's Nest club is still being completed as is the Philips Experience, a promotional area for the electronics company that paid $168 million over 20 years for naming rights to the venue. Suites lease for $135,000 to $225,000 and hold 12 to 20 persons each. There are 2,893 club seats
selling for $8,000 to $9,000. The arena is also the home of the NBA Hawks.
THE ULTIMATE SPORTS ROAD TRIP
By: Andrew Kulyk & Peter Farrell
| Philips Arena Ranking by USRT |
| Architecture |  | 6.5 |
| Concessions | | 8 |
| Scoreboard | | 8 |
| Ushers | | 7 |
| Fan Support | | 3 |
| Location | | 7 |
| Banners/History | | 1 |
| Entertainment | | 8 |
| Concourses/Fan Comfort | | 6 |
| Bonus: CNN Center Atrium | | 4 |
| Bonus: Old Omni Scoreboard | | 2 |
| Bonus: Real Time Noisemeter | | 2 |
| Total Score |  | 62.5 |
December 3, 1999
December 4, 1999
November 9, 2004 - Phillips Arena is the sparkling home for the NBA Atlanta Hawks and the NHL Atlanta Thrashers. When they picked
a new location for their new venue, which opened in 1999, several alternatives to the location of the old Omni were considered. But why re-invent the wheel? The best spot for the new venue was right where the old one stood. So the Omni was razed, and right in its spot the new Phillips Arena was built. We can't imagine a better spot than this!
Getting to the Venue
The arena is situated on the east side of downtown, right next to the landmark Georgia Dome and the huge Georgia Convention Center. Directional signage throughout the downtown streets are abundant, and coming in to downtown from any of the arterials, I-75, I-85 or I-20 will also direct you to the venue. Another easy way to get here is via the MARTA rail line. Exit W1 is steps from the building's front door. Cost for parking in the ramp is $15, though cheaper lots can be found for as little as $5. Free on street parking is pretty scarce and far away so plan to pay.
Outside the Venue
Other well known Atlanta landmarks such as the CNN World Center and Centennial Park are right next to the arena. In fact, the CNN Center is connected right to the arena, and the breathtaking 20 story atrium houses a good number of restaurants, shops and fast food eateries, so this makes for a good pre game destination. One of the most unique characteristics of the exterior facade is for the word ATLANTA which is inscribed in huge letters in the pillars of the front lobby. A video board and lighted marquee sits on a wall of the parking garage a block away .
Concourses
Once inside the arena take a walk around the concourses with plenty of merchandise and concession stands. There were a couple of things that caught our eye here, one was an old four-sided scoreboard without a video board. Later we were to find out that this was the old main scoreboard at the Omni and as we saw during the game it is still fully functional and still used to keep time and score and other vital stats of the game going on in progress. The other thing we noticed was the wall of television monitors(roughly 100?) as we went up the escalator to the upper level showing various sports events from around the nation. You could catch the action on those screens from many vantage points in the upper and lower concourses. And at the top of the escalator is where the arena has an interactive game experience area with hoops for kids, video games and so on.
The major merchandise store is located near the CNN Center entrance of the venue.
Another major feature of the lower concourse is a colorful area named "HawkWalk", simply it is the prime area of the venue to find concessions, merchandise and the like.
Seating Bowl
Inside the arena bowl you will find the usual two level seating area with suites and the like. However this building diverges in a major way from other arenas when it comes to club seats and suite locations. Instead of the traditional, suites and club seats between the upper and lower seating areas this arena has all club seats consisting of the entire lower seating level on one sideline of the arena and there are four level of suites atop overlooking these club seats. Truly unique and something we have not seen before or since.
There is a four sided Phillips videoboard in the center of the building along with dot matrix boards above the seating area at each end zone supplying statistics and out of town scores. LED ribbon boards run around the circumference of the balcony and are complemented by companion boards at the base of the center scoreboard.
Banners/Retired Numbers
The Hawks have three retired numbers for Bob Pettit (from the club's days in St. Louis), Lou Hudson, and Dominique Wilkins. They also have banners commemorating their division titles won while in Atlanta.
The Thrashers have two banners: one for their inaugural season of 1999-2000, and one for their fifth season in 2003-04. What??? No banners for the second, third , and fourth seasons? This reeks of those "thank you for participating" certificates that kids get after playing in Little League and has absolutely no place wasting air in an arena's rafters!!!
Did you know???? The Hawks franchise began play in the mid 40's as the Buffalo Bisons.
Slam Dunks, Assists, Fouls
Extra Point(s) - The Thrashers and Hawks both had pretty wretched teams that season yet both teams were victorious. The Thrashers with a one goal win over the then-division leading Panthers, and Hawks hanging on to a narrow win over the Pistons as Detroit's last gasp FG attempt for the W bricked off the backboard.
Foul - on our return visit in 2004 , we attended the Hawks opening night, and the Hawks put on an astounding display of why they've been an NBA lottery regular. They tied a franchise low for points in a half on their way to being routed by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Slam Dunk - During the Thrashers game they brought out a real decibel counter to show how loud the fans were, a refreshing change from all of those useless "Fan-O-Meter" graphics on too many Jumbotrons across the US.
Extra Point - The big game in town that weekend in 1999 wasn't the Hawks,Thrashers, or Falcons but the SEC Championship at the Georgia Dome Saturday Night as Alabama pummeled Florida for the right to go to the Sugar Bowl. I can still remember us failing miserably at kicking field goals at the SEC Experience as well as all of those Gators fans on I-75 making the trek up with us to Atlanta.
Special thanks to Scott Riley, who put us up at his home in the 'burbs for a few days during our first visit, saving us a bundle on hotel expenses. That alone qualified him for induction into our Hall of Fame.
Summary
We like arenas in bustling downtown locations, and this one certainly fits the bill. Better yet, the Georgia Dome and the massive convention center complex are also nearby, creating all sorts of urban synergies. Two elements make this venue unique and striking... first of all, the connection the building has with the CNN Center next door. The dramatic atrium almost serves as the venue's main lobby, and lots of shopping and eating options here for before the game. Second, the "Hawk Walk" concourse is so festive and colorful, it really sets the tone for this building. Too bad the teams that play here are mired in such muck. For Phillips Arena is a great venue in a vibrant and exciting city, and earns a top mark on our list.
