Officials today are cutting the ribbon on Little Caesars Arena, and architectural firm HOK has "managed to pull off a balancing act -- creating a new mega-structure huge in its proportions that nonetheless contributes to the surrounding street life in an appropriate urbanist way," according to John Gallagher of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. The arena's playing surface was "excavated and sited about 40 feet below street level." That "lowers the profile of the arena that otherwise would loom over its surroundings." The arena "features a new 'deconstructed' design" in which all of the Red Wings' offices, retail stores and the box office are "built outside the arena itself." They are "connected to it with a glass roof to form the Via, an indoor street that replaces the typical cramped concourse level in arenas like the old Joe Louis, which Little Caesars Arena replaces." These outer buildings use "lower heights and varying types of brick and window treatments to break down the façade to a pleasant human scale." Instead of the arena "looking like what it is -- one behemoth structure -- the effect becomes a row of traditional urban buildings not unlike many others that line Woodward Avenue." Buildings around the playing area are brought "right out to the sidewalk, rather than setting the structure back behind acres of surface parking lots as many suburban stadiums did -- think the Pontiac Silverdome or the Palace of Auburn Hills." Multiple entrances and mixed uses, including restaurants and office space, "encourage a flow of pedestrians in and out at varying times of the day." Gallagher: "We’ve obviously come a long, long way from those domed stadiums plopped amid acres of asphalt parking lots in distant suburbia." The Via is "perhaps the best innovation of all." The Via will "remain open year-round, even on non-event days" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 9/5).
MAKING DAD PROUD: Ilitch Holdings President & CEO Chris Ilitch said of what his late father and former Red Wings and Tigers Owner Mike Ilitch's impression of the arena would be, "Every week I would go over to his house and I would share the plans and get his thoughts and his input, and he was over-the-moon excited about Little Caesars Arena and the District Detroit. ... I think if he saw this today, he would be thrilled. At the end of the day what he wanted more than anything, he wanted to produce a winner here in Detroit, and it’s coming together" (DETROIT FREE PRESS, 9/5).
