New Atlanta Stadium

By Patrick Londrigan

The next stadium on the list is the Atlanta Falcons new stadium that is currently under construction.  The stadium will be located directly next to their existing stadium, the Georgia Dome.  The Falcons lease at the Georgia Dome is set to expire in 2020 or when the bonds financing the facility are paid off, which could be as early as 2017.  A new stadium would create a long-term solution for the football team, as apposed to renewing a lease with the Georgia Dome and renovating it to current NFL standards.  If the club were to renovate the existing Dome it would cost upwards to $859 million, which is not a great difference in price than to building a new facility.

Figure 1: New Stadium Design Rendering

The new stadium design is to create a long-term stadium solution that will allow the Georgia World Congress Center (the owners of the stadium) to remain competitive in attracting premier events to its stadium.  The architect Bill Johnson, of 360 Architecture, wanted to create a stadium that was completely integrated, the seats, the skin, and the roof and the way it moved all had to be one idea.  They wanted to create a new retractable roof that has never been seen on a stadium today.  They looked into history for iconic buildings that have interesting roof structures or lighting effects.  They found the Pantheon, which has a small hole in the center of the roof that sends a beam of light throughout the room and creating a type of spotlight affect.  Johnson thought it would be neat to incorporate this affect in the stadium at the center of the field right on the Falcons logo, only to get larger and larger.  Creating the idea of bringing all the energy and light to the center and to the game.

Figure 2: Rendering showing the roof structure.

Another addition to the new stadium is the new complex scoreboard.  To start, you would have to no longer call it a board.  A scoreboard would typically tell you that it is rectangular an either on or in the seats of the stadium.  The new scoreboard attempted to integrate the video, with the roof, the opening, and the seating, to make something different.  The idea is to take the opening of the roof and “ring” it with screens to get a 360-degree experience while being in the stadium.  The idea would be, if you were sitting at the 50-yard line you would be able to see the action on the field.  Then if you looked to the scoreboard you would be able to see the view from the opposite side of the field.  Giving the visitor an experience that they cannot get from watching the game at home.

Figure 3: Perspective from the interior