The arrival of Farmers Field in L.A. would give downtown "another push toward true centrality in Los Angeles, or at least help make it first among equals when it comes to the city's many centers," but the impact on its "immediate neighborhood, the South Park section of downtown, promises to be a whole lot less positive," according to architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne of the L.A. TIMES. Farmers Field "promises to expand, in seamless fashion, the reach and impressive scale of AEG-land, that sleek, glossy commercial oasis between South Park proper and the Harbor Freeway." Trying to fit an NFL facility into a "constricted urban site without room for tailgating could make Farmers Field the football equivalent of the wildly popular new generation of downtown baseball parks." The "problem is that because this is an AEG project, the stadium's most obvious architectural fealty is not to the city but to the corporate mini-world around it." That is "not to say that AEG has been entirely deaf to complaints about the placeless quality of the architecture it has already built downtown." The firm "has enlisted Gehl Architects, a Danish firm that is known for intelligent streetscape design and has recently completed a sophisticated proposal to remake a stretch of Figueroa Street downtown." The involvement of Gehl's Oliver Schulze in the stadium planning process is a "very good sign." However, other news from AEG "has been less positive." AEG and the city "showed limited imagination in picking" Populous to build a replacement for the demolished West Hall. Populous' Dan Meis "was a chief designer of Staples Center, which would seem to increase the odds that the new convention center building won't deviate much from the shiny AEG template." Farmers Field "shows few indications that it will be anything but a smooth and compliant -- if huge -- complement to L.A. Live and Staples Center" (L.A. TIMES, 8/17).
