The visionary design and innovation behind Intuit Dome’s multidimensional experience
AECOM is the lead designer of Intuit Dome, the future home of the LA Clippers. The iconic new sports and event venue has been designed for optimal and intimate engagement with the community and fans and will raise the bar for every major sports franchise in the world concerning sustainability through design and fan experience.
In the Intuit Dome blog series, we are taking a deep dive into each element of Intuit Dome with the leaders who made this project a reality. Throughout these pieces, we discuss features like community engagement, sustainability and visionary design/innovation to learn more about what makes Intuit Dome a game-changer in sports and entertainment.
Intuit Dome, the new permanent home of the Los Angeles Clippers, has been designed with a level of innovation and excellence that supersedes all others in the industry. With meticulous attention to detail from the gridshell exterior of the building to the myriad features inside that prioritize the fans and the community, Intuit Dome will provide a unique, multidimensional experience. The centerpiece of this mixed-use development is the 18,000-seat arena which is combined with 100,000 square feet of administrative office space, 9,500 square feet of retail space, an 86,000-square-foot training facility, and community amenities including an open public plaza with a large media screen, concert stage and basketball court. A key motivator behind Intuit Dome’s design features and envisioned user experience is a strong commitment to carbon neutrality and sustainability.
As a design architect, I believe a building should be tuned to its environment. Whether the project is a tower in the Middle East or a rail station in China, our design teams strive to create buildings that fit into and work appropriately within the context of their surroundings. A large part of this concept is ensuring that the building is efficient in terms of how it uses resources. In Los Angeles, we need to conserve water, but we have the benefit of abundant daylight and mild temperatures. Additionally, we tried to connect the visitor experience to the California environment to create a unique presence for Intuit Dome.
When we looked at the Intuit Dome program, it proved to be larger than the usual arena facility, so it needed an expanded “envelope.” As conceived by our design team, Intuit Dome’s architecture works with the favorable Southern California climate by allowing as much fresh air and daylight inside the building as possible. An innovative gridshell enclosure creates an envelope that defines the volume of the building. It encompasses the arena and team-related facilities as well as the informal spaces, which include indoor/outdoor terraces, linking the primary levels of the interior of the building to its natural surroundings.
Appropriate to the California climate, the outside skin of the building, or gridshell, is built of ultra-lightweight material and seismically isolated from the building’s structure. The gridshell carries a system of flexible, durable membrane panels that modulate wind, sun and rain. The three panel types, ETFE, PTFE and laminated PTFE, protect most of the informal spaces from rain while also allowing for fresh air flow and solar glare control. These membrane materials are translucent and do not reflect light like glass. As a result, the material is a better surface for bird safety, which is important as Intuit Dome is located within a major avian migration path. The venue will use 100 percent outdoor air within the arena bowl, reducing energy consumption, enhancing thermal comfort and providing significant health benefits. The shell design also improves the outward perception of the venue. Since the primary interior spaces are separately enclosed and acoustically insulated, the informal exterior spaces are opened giving visibility to internal movement that allows the venue to have a lively active expression.
The interior of the building is as innovative as the exterior. Intuit Dome’s 18,000-seat arena is designed to both bring fans closer to the action and give them the most legroom in the NBA, whether they’re sitting in premium locations courtside or in the upper bowl. The loudest contingent of Clippers fans will be located immediately behind the opposing team’s basket, in a steep section we call “The Wall” where there will be special features catering to these fans. Our upper bowl seats are accessed from above rather than below to make that experience less intimidating. The innovative design of the unique halo-shaped LED scoreboard will bring statistics and replay footage for the audience at an unmatched scale. The form of the board allows it to be easily visible from all seats, but it is lifted to the rafters so that it does not compete with the action on the court. The curved surface of the board totals almost an acre of media.
For the players, office staff and Clippers organization, we have designed their part of the facility to feel like home. Access points have been coordinated to provide privacy and convenience. The team locker room is used for both practices and on game day for easy movement to the practice courts, training room and therapy equipment. The practice courts and dining areas have views of a lush, terraced landscape that includes a lap pool.
Going beyond the building, it is important to us that Intuit Dome belongs to its neighborhood. To do this, we designed a large public plaza that leads to the front entrance. This vibrant community space features a large media screen and basketball court framed by retail, restaurants and a grand staircase shaded by a canopy. Visitors can access these amenities, even if they don’t have tickets to an event. The plaza can allow anyone to enjoy a game on the public screen and partake in the energy and excitement that concerts and NBA games will bring.
From redefining the multidimensional fan experience and environmental standards to empowering economic revitalization and community connections, Intuit Dome is truly more than an arena providing the blueprint for a sustainable legacy.