The intent was to design a plan that could accommodate a museum, hotel, outdoor event plaza and a retail complex. The bulldozers were lined up and ready to go, so we really had to nail our colors to the mast! We made use of an existing basement plan that was flexible enough to allow us to refine the hotel and conference center layouts even as piling commenced. Discovering some additional area, we introduced a water feature in front of the porte-cochere, lending it the ‘resort” feel.

For the plaza, we veered away from using a traditional stadium footprint and instead we bound a large celebration plaza within an oval shaped building that functioned as part museum, part retail/entertainment venue buzzing with plentiful food and beverage offers.

The sheer size of the scheme meant that it was a challenge to divide into coherent areas. One idea was to use intersecting sloping roofs and turn them into roof gardens, a modern twist on the “Hollywood Bowl”. The entrances to the celebration plaza are key pieces and needed to convey a sense of drama and wonder at each junction. Our idea of hanging two hyperbolical-parabolic canopies from a line of toroidal columns provides a daring, yet elegant solution

Concept design to grand opening took just 18 months.