heneghan peng architects



Bigfoot, A Football Stadium for Los Angeles | LA

Los Angeles, United States


“Bigfoot” was a 1997 ideas competition to design a football stadium at Santa Monica State beach in order to entice football teams back to LA which has been deserted by two football teams over the previous two years.

We proposed a floating football stadium – a ship – which bypasses the problems of siting the stadium and addresses the increasing mobility of football teams, if the team is sold the football stadium can go with them.

In 1997 25 of the 30 NFL teams are in cities with waterway access – most major US cities have waterway access. If the team is sold but not the stadium, the stadium can be sold to a different city.

Paradoxically this project could become a symbol of an LA football team, a stadium whose unique identity – a floating stadium which can move and be repainted like commercial airliners – becomes tied to a place, LA.

The stadium can be thought of as a mall with the football stadium being an anchor store, and the super bookstore/gym being the other anchor store. But it is an anchor store with a varying program, when itʼs not being used as a football stadium it can accommodate a range of commercial activities (the future staging site of the Cirque de Soleil, Sunday flee markets, rock concerts, evangelist readings) and public events, it is an anchor store that harnesses the possibility of commercialism. The retail aspect will generate the income to fund the stadium and also provide a context for use of the stadium during dark hours thereby making the stadium more feasible.

The form of the ship/stadium is derived from a supertanker into which a football stadium for 80,000 has been inserted. The form of the ship’s hull is modified slightly to accommodate the idealized stadium. Under-stadium activities of concession stands, access ways and services occupy the interstitial space between the stadium and the hull.

Fact sheet


Ideas Competition

Date

1997

Location

Los Angeles, United States

Collaborators


Model

Andrew Ingham & Associates

 

Contact

heneghan peng architects
14–16 Lord Edward Street, Floor 2
Dublin D02 YC63, Ireland

Tel +353 (0)1 633 9000
Fax +353 1 633 9010

hparc@hparc.com

 

Potsdamer Strasse 98a, 4. OG
10785 Berlin
Germany

Tel +49 30 20 89 88 750
Fax +49 30 20 89 88 759