Architects last week "revealed details of the Lakers’ recently approved" $80M HQ and training facility in El Segundo, Calif., set to open in late spring '17, according to Carley Dryden of the Torrance DAILY BREEZE. The two-story, 122,000-square-foot facility will include "a double basketball court" for Lakers practices and NBA D-League D-Fenders home games, "two half-courts, a training area, team area, atrium and the corporate headquarters." The building will be "constructed of glass, metal and steel." It will also feature "integrated signage and a pattern of bronze-colored vertical fins along the facade, providing light and visibility while screening direct sunlight and excess heat." The facility will be "built around the double court." Detroit-based architecture firm Rossetti Principal & Sports Design Dir Jim Renne, who is the lead architect on the project, said, "You’re asked to think about, ‘What do you envision from here on out? What’s important to you?’ We had people talking to each other who rarely did.” He added, "This is creating a new home, bringing everyone together in one place. Right now, operations are in two different buildings. This was a chance to architecturally organize their home.” The project's associate architect, Illinois-based Perkins+Will Principal Carl Meyer said, "Whether someone works in sales, sponsorships, accounting or social media, they all felt they needed to be exposed and next to the basketball part of the organization.” Meyer said that Lakers Exec VP/Business Operations Jeanie Buss and other team execs working in business operations on the second level "will have windows that look down on to the court." Dryden noted the ground-level facilities, including the training and weight rooms, "open up to the court." Meyer added that the Lakers logo and signage, which will be "embedded into the architecture" of the building, "is quite large, but also very subtle." Dryden reported the logo also will placed "on the roof," so that it is "clearly visible to passengers flying into LAX" (Torrance DAILY BREEZE, 7/6).
THREE-YEAR PLAN: The Lakers have failed to land a marquee free agent this offseason, and ESPN L.A.'s Baxter Holmes noted Buss last week reiterated her stance that she would step down if the team does not "make a deep run in the playoffs within three years." Appearing on KPCC-FM on Thursday, she said, "The Buss family is the majority owner but we have other partners as well who are also shareholders, and I have an obligation to them. Would I make those changes? Yes. My brother understands that we have to continue to strive for greatness, and I think he would be the first one to feel that he would need to step down if he can't get us to that point." Buss compared the current NBA landscape to when her father, late Lakers Owner Jerry Buss, bought the club in '79 and said, "There's more competition. There's now a more structured collective bargaining agreement with the players which has been designed to even the playing field so all 30 teams can compete for a championship. Which is great for the health of the league. I don't think the league has ever been healthier than it is now. But the rules have changed how we operate, and we have to continue to evolve as an organization so we can control our future and really put together a team that Lakers fans have come to expect" (ESPNLA.com, 7/2).
