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Rendering of the Atlanta Braves new SunTrust Park, which is a destination and lifestyle development, opening in 2017.
Two new stadiums currently being constructed in Atlanta, both due to open in 2017, have created an abundance of architectural innovation and media attention. The capital city of Georgia’s National Football League franchise Atlanta Falcons has what appears to be a thrillingly high-tech postmodern masterpiece on the way with the Mercedes-Benz Stadium that will also be home stadium for the new Atlanta United FC Major League Soccer franchise. United FC is also owned by Falcons’ owner Arthur Blank. The Major League Baseball Atlanta Braves’ new digs coming up at SunTrust Park is a ground-breaking project in both a literal and figurative sense.
ATLANTA FALCONS
Mercedes-Benz Stadium
One look at the architectural renderings of the under-construction $1.5-billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the NFL franchise Atlanta Falcons and you know it’s something special. The most striking feature of the nearly 70,000-seat stadium (expandable to 75,000) is its retractable roof formed with eight translucent triangular panels that open and close dramatically in overlapping camera-lens shutter fashion sitting atop an (almost) equally dramatic lower roofline with broad triangular metallic juts slanting out and down toward the ground.
The roof of Mercedes-Benz Stadium has created considerable media buzz but it’s just one innovative element of the HOK design that has several. Those include a 360-degree HD video halo board that will not only be the largest video board in the NFL, but in the world; a multilevel section of the stadium with floor-to-ceiling windows that offer views of the field and of Atlanta’s downtown skyline; a 60,000-square-foot outdoor fan plaza; and a 100-yard-long sports bar.
“We asked ourselves, ‘Why couldn’t we start with the idea of the roof and make it work and move in some way that responded to the shape of the seats or the site,’” remembered Bill Johnson, HOK Senior Vice President and Design Principal for the project. “And why couldn’t the opening of it be something that was unexpected and actually worked in a very beautiful way that was itself somewhat of an event. Nobody had ever prioritized that before. We started with the roof and we worked that idea into the rest of the building.”
The design of the new stadium’s scoreboard is also state of the art, a halo board that’s nearly 60-feet tall with a 360-degree display that rings the bottom of the roof opening.
The Falcons’ Scott Jenkins, general manager of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, was also especially enthusiastic.
“The fixed-roof structure has the 58-foot high video board attached and it’s extraordinary,” said Jenkins. “To give you an idea of the scale of it, it’s like taking a video board in a baseball park and wrapping it around the field. It’s over 60,000 square feet — 58-feet high and 1,100-linear-feet long. It’s going to be an incredible way to enhance the experience of the fan.”
ATLANTA BRAVES
SunTrust Park
The design of the Atlanta Braves new ballpark, to be completed by the spring of 2017, is plenty innovative. But the essence of innovation and uniqueness in the ball club’s 41,500-seat SunTrust Park lies perhaps predominantly in the overall landscaping of the nearly 90-acre site it sits on and the simultaneous building of an adjacent mixed-use development separated from the ballpark by an outdoor plaza and greenspace.
“The Braves wanted first and foremost for fans to have a fantastic experience,” noted Joe Spear, senior principal for Populous and principal in charge of Design for the project. “And they wanted the physical structure of the ballpark to relate well with that multiuse development, to be a pleasant place for people to enjoy during baseball games and other times as well, and also for people to live and work there. We think they are well on their way towards having something that is going to be pretty fantastic.”
According to Derek Schiller, executive vice president of Sales and Marketing for the Atlanta Braves, the mixed-use development will include a 250-room hotel, 550 apartments, a 9-story 250,000-square-foot Comcast office building, 2-story 50,000-square-foot Roxy entertainment venue, and about 350,000 square feet of retail space including restaurants, fashion and other types of retailers.
The Braves announced this spring a 50-50 partnership with Omni Hotels & Resorts for a 16-floor luxury hotel to be built overlooking SunTrust Park. The hotel is expected to have a signature restaurant, an elevated pool deck and nearly 12,500 square feet of meeting space.
“We are redefining the fan experience by master-planning and developing all of the mixed-use development in combination with SunTrust Park,” said Schiller.
SunTrust Park itself will be a striking blend of classic red-brick ballpark with flourishes of contemporary elements and modern amenities. It will have a reinvented iconic Chop House food and beverage operation expanded to three levels.
Interviewed for this story: Bill Johnson, (816) 472 3360; Scott Jenkins, (770) 965-3115; Joe Spear, (816) 221-1500; Derek Schiller, (404) 522-7630