Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium will be hosting the 56th Superbowl on Feb.13, but the stadium serves as much more than a venue for sports. According to HKS Architects, which designed the 3.1 million square-foot stadium, SoFi offers three venues in one and strives to be a center for the greater Inglewood community.
“It really lends itself to large scale multi-purpose events that could happen year-round. Football has a limited season and even with two teams, which we’re fortunate to have here, there aren’t that many games for football, so to justify and really leverage the tremendous impact of this project, the flexibility afforded by these multiple venues coming together and having a roof over it in Los Angeles gives you the ultimate flexibility to have super events,” Scott Hunter, regional director with HKS Architects, said.
Located in Hollywood Park, a 298-acre sports and entertainment development, the stadium was developed and envisioned by Los Angeles Rams owner and Chairman E. Stanley Kroenke. As a three-in-one stadium, SoFi is home to a 70,000-seat sports venue, while also flexible to accommodate 100,000 guests. Additionally, SoFi contains the 6,000-seat YouTube Live performance venue and another 2.5-acre covered outdoor plaza, which can be used for a variety of events.
In addition, the dome-shaped stadium contains 260 luxury suites, 12 club spaces and a large dual-sided video board that provides fans with an immersive experience.
“The immersive technology of the oculus is pretty powerful and it’s also designed in a way so that it’s double-sided. If you’re on the upper side of the bowl, you can look at the outside of it. If you’re down on the lower side towards the field, you look at the inside of the other side. You always have a good view of what’s going on, and it is a powerful component of the overall experience,” Hunter said.
In wanting to be a space for the community, SoFi was inspired by the surrounding Southern California environment. The curve of the building represents the waves of the Pacific Ocean, and the six-acre Lake Park outside the stadium also provides additional outdoor space for the surrounding community.
SoFi is also the first indoor-outdoor stadium to be constructed for the National Football League. A main feature of the stadium, the single layer ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) roof provides a clear ceiling that opens and closes to maintain functionality no matter the weather conditions. Because of the material, the roof also provides natural light, while keeping UV radiation from the sun away.
“I think it would be just a disservice if we didn’t take advantage of that, and I think the research kind of shows that this notion of biophilia and that the connectivity to nature has a positive health effect on human beings. I think it’s part of the overall kind of ethos of our culture here in Southern California to try to connect to the outdoors,” Hunter said.
However, the stadium strives to be a good community partner in other ways as well. Due to height restrictions, the stadium also reaches 100 feet below grade. While initially acting as a design challenge, Hunter said the lower height makes the stadium a less imposing structure for nearby residences and allows for better community integration overall. The stadium uses a series of escalators, elevators and stairs to guide fans to seats, with landscaping, food and shopping along the way.
“I think we’re a really good neighbor in that regard by taking advantage of this, the constraints that we have put on us, and it provides some really great amenities for the overall experience of going to the stadium as well by having it depressed into the ground,” Hunter said.
The stadium is planned to integrate into the greater Inglewood community, as well as the growing Hollywood Park development. In addition to SoFi, the developing Inglewood community will be home to approximately 1.5 million square feet of retail and office space, 20 acres of parkland and 2,995 residences and the 400,000 square-foot NFL Media Center.
“Overtime, as future development comes into the Hollywood Park 300-acre campus, it’s really going to be an integrated part of Inglewood, and a part of Southern California. We’re just kind of seeing the beginnings of what SoFi will be as a really integrated entertainment destination. Football is sort of the backbone of it with Stan Kroenke’s vision, leadership and what he wanted to see happen here but it’s a much larger opportunity to celebrate the Southern California lifestyle,” Hunter said.
