Groundbreaking Ceremony held for NFL Rams’ new L.A. Stadium and Entertainment District at Hollywood Park

Kroenke Sports and Entertainment broke ground on the new HKS-designed L.A. Stadium & Entertainment District at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, California, yesterday.

On hand at the groundbreaking ceremony were Los Angeles Rams Owner/Chairman E. Stanley Kroenke, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Los Angeles Rams Chief Operating Officer & EVP of Football Operations Kevin Demoff, Inglewood Mayor James Butts, Rams Legends Eric Dickerson, Rosey Grier, Tom Mack and Jack Youngblood, Rams players Aaron Donald and Johnny Hekker, and elected officials from the cities of Inglewood and Los Angeles, Los Angeles County and the State of California.

The nearly 3 million-square-foot L.A. Stadium will be the new home of the NFL’s L.A. Rams and is slated to open in 2019. It has been designed to host world-class sporting events and college championships, and will feature some 70,000 fixed seats, with the flexibility to expand to host more than 100,000 fans. It will be the NFL’s newest home and has already been chosen as the host venue for the Super Bowl LV in 2021.

HKS Principal Mark A. Williams, AIA, LEED AP, said:

The regional climate and cultural DNA of Southern California and Los Angeles are the foundation of our design. We have crafted a design that is responsive to its site, the community and the global stage of sports and entertainment. We believe this project represents a very important piece of architecture for Southern California and will broaden the fan experience in sports and entertainment venues.

A perforated, permeable metal ‘skin’ wraps the venue to create an open-air canopy. This curving roof covers much more than the stadium itself, including outdoor ‘rooms’ and plaza spaces that blur the distinction between indoor and outdoor environments. Within the metal perimeter, HKS designed an ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) canopy to enable hosting year-round events while maintaining an outdoor feel. ETFE is a lightweight, transparent roof membrane that will create the atmosphere of an open-air environment while protecting patrons from the elements.

The construction management joint venture of Turner/AECOM will lead the project’s construction, and HKS is the architect.

Williams continued:

From day one, Mr. Kroenke talked to us about his vision to elevate the fan experience. He challenged us to create a venue unlike any other in sports that celebrated the NFL’s return to Los Angeles.

Rams Owner/Chairman, Kroenke, said in his prepared remarks:

This is a great day. I read it this morning, and I hadn’t really thought about it, but this is the first time a stadium will have been built for an NFL team in Los Angeles. Isn’t that remarkable?

The 70,000-seat stadium is the centrepiece of a 298-acre urban village that will include two million square feet of Class A commercial space, 2,500 modern residences, a 6,000-seat performing arts venue and 25 acres of public parks.

Addressing the throngs of Rams fans in attendance, Kroenke said:

We’re going to give you something to be proud of — that’s our goal. We want to make citizens of the area, certainly of the NFL, and the residents of Inglewood proud of what we’re doing here. We’re going to build a global destination — that’s what we think we can do — in the entertainment capital of the world.

Sources: www.therams.com and www.hksinc.com

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