RealGM

This new design blows the Rose Garden out of the water, IMO.

OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH................

This is why the U of O is the best college in the country...Oh, and one of our boosters is Phil Knight...

I'm excited! I'm also excited for Kevin Love to **** a brick tomorrow at our current arena!

wow, that looks great. congratulations on the new arena.

WOW, that's a beautiful stadium. It feels really good to be a duck fan once again.

it's a nice artist's conception.

It may be scaled back quite a bit though because the price tag is enormous and there is a little issue of financing and state backed bonding authority.

Guess I am the only one that always thinks stadiums are ugly. Only one I have ever liked is the real coliseum in Rome .

Oden2 wrote:WOW, that's a beautiful stadium. It feels really good to be a duck fan once again.

Why ever did you stop??

Voodoo wrote:Guess I am the only one that always thinks stadiums are ugly. Only one I have ever liked is the real coliseum in Rome .

Funny, I was going to post that I think stadiums (for football/soccer and basketball, anyway) are inherently ugly. All you can really hope to do is mitigate the enormity. Unless excavation costs would be prohibitive, I'd like to see a stadium that's mostly below the ground. Barring that, somebody should offer real innovation to make the offending size secondary to the prettiness of the design. Conseco Fieldhouse and the American Airlines Center are respectable attempts at this, and I seem to recall seeing a soccer stadium that was new a few years ago do this successfully (help me out here, Dakotah...). Several architects have made art out of airport terminals over the years, so why can't the same be done for sports arenas? On the other hand, Portland's Memorial Coliseum is probably the most interesting arena I've ever seen, and it's just four pillars and four walls of glass. Maybe there is something to be said for simplicity?

All that said, these renderings are nice enough. Much more attractive than the hideous Rose Garden.

Wizenheimer wrote:it's a nice artist's conception.

It may be scaled back quite a bit though because the price tag is enormous and there is a little issue of financing and state backed bonding authority.

Supposedly they have capped the price tag at $200 million, which would make it the most expensive college stadium in America. Funding will come from public bonds paid back over 30 years through stadium revenue and the UO Legacy Fund (the $100 million athletic department safety net donated by the Knights).

The design of the arena is quite appealing; teh Lehrbach would be surprised to learn that the court part will be underground. As a student, I have a lot of conflicts over this project (nostalgia over Mac Court, traffic issues, effect on the University at large, complementing future dorm renovations), but I believe, to an extent, they are actually being sympathetic and not sticking a generic box where they feel it's most convenient.

I agree with you Timmy except for the Memorial coliseum bit, I think thats just as hideous as any other attempt at making a large 'modern' arena if not more so. Although I pretty much feel that way about most large buildings, style and character are thrown out the window when cost and safety become the main concern.

Voodoo wrote:I agree with you Timmy except for the Memorial coliseum bit, I think thats just as hideous as any other attempt at making a large 'modern' arena if not more so.

It's really not an enormous structure in the same way that most other arenas are. It's just a huge pillar in each of four corners, which serve not only to make it a sound core that could be turned into virtually any kind of building but also make the inner bowl less imposing. The walls of glass work because they achieve the intended look of being hung over the arena. That, too, lightens the overall effect in a way that isn't as successful in most other gargantuan buildings draped in glass.

But no, it's not a pretty building at all.