Stadium Given Beautiful New Design

Jay Cross of the New York Jets today announced a major redesign of the West Side Stadium. The design team was led by Bill Pederson of Kohn Pederson Fox and included wayfinding designer Bruce Mau of Bruce Mau Design, lighting designer Herve Descottes of L'Observatoire and interior designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg of Yabu Pushelberg.

One of the main complaints of the opposition was always the height and scale of the building. We never agreed with this assessment, as much of the building's "height" was actually a faux wall made up of the wind turbines, there to generate electricity, which would have made this the first truly "green" stadium ever built. These turbines would not have formed an opaque surface to the casual viewer, rather, they would have allowed a view of the sky, with light streaming through. The overall theme of the old design derived from these turbines, with the building having an exoskeleton of silvery steel, much like the George Washington Bridge.

Now, the wind turbines are gone, reducing the overall heightof the building by almost 40%. With the logic of the old exterior gone, Pederson and company went back to the drawing board, returning with this stunning structure.

It is a building truly built to human scale. There is a cutaway line sloping on a gentle angle along the the walkways around the building giving a pleasent eye line for the casual stroller. Stepping away, the glass skin will reflect the Hudson River to the west and the green park and surrounding city to the east during the day, then gently glow at night, colors varying from an icy blue with a blurring effect allowing the structure to blend in with the sky, to warm and sultry orange and reds, depending on events inside.

The building no longer looks like a stadium. One can see the convention center aspect of the structure now. With the roof closed, it struck me that the exterior now appears to be about 16 stories at most, with the additional four stories of the roof set in of the center of the structure, making it invisible from the street level.

The main entrance is now on 11th Avenue, with retail spaces and a television studio, giving it a feel of accessibility and vitality that it heretofore lacked.

We will be adding images as we get our hands on them.