fter 38 years in Oakland at the Oracle
Arena, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors’
move across the Bay to the city of San
Francisco was a long time in the making,
but it has led to an impressive payoff.
Chase Center is not just a new arena for the NBA’s
most successful team of the decade, it’s an exemplary
act of neighborhood placemaking, as well as a highly
functional venue that can transform to stage concerts
and theater with as much ability as it does basketball.
“It’s the latest example of a kind of future formula for
stadia and arenas,” says Rick Welts, the Golden State
Warriors’ president.
Before the Chase Center opened in September this
year, the project had to negotiate a series of hurdles. For
example, the team had initially selected a waterfront
site, known as Pier 30-32, only to see that plan collapse.
It led to eventually finding an alternative site in San
Francisco’s developing Mission Bay district, also just
off the water. While it’s a prime location, being so close
to the water of the Bay provided its share of challenges.
“We were dealing with going into the water table
and having poor soil conditions, from the point of
view of supporting the building loads and the seismic
conditions,” says Wyatt Henderson, senior associate
at structural engineering company Magnusson
Klemencic. “We have a complete bathtub – concrete
basement walls, then concrete structural slab spanning
between our column and wall locations, supported on
concretepile caps, which are then supported by auger
shafts and piles extending all the way to bedrock.”
With San Francisco situated in an area of seismic
activity, there’s also the issue of potential earthquakes
to consider, so the engineering of the Chase Center
has to be prepared to handle the worst-case scenario.
“The arena structure is the gravity framing system,
primarily a construction of steel columns and beams
(Main) Chase Center features
the largest center-hung digital
videoboard in the NBA
(Top right) The PrismView
videoboard integrates 15
displays and is 57ft wide
(Below right) Isamu Nogochi’s
Play Sculpture is on loan
from the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art
CHASE CENTER
CURTAIN RAISER
Many arenas use curtains to create smaller-theater configurations
that can host more modest concerts and events. Chase Center
takes this an extra step.
“We will essentially be able to cut the building down so that
it only plays to one side,” explains William Hon, director at David
Manica Architecture. “Walls will deploy from the ceiling, and the
stage proscenium will lower from the gantry, where it
permanently lives. It is really unlike anything anyone has ever
done before from a technical, visual and quality standpoint,
which as you know is usually just done with blackout curtains.
The Warriors ownership’s desire was to have something that
really felt like a whole new building.”
20 www.stadia-magazine.com Showcase 2020
/www.stadia-magazine.com
/www.stadia-magazine.com