The Milwaukee Bucks today released an updated set of renderings for the new arena that will be built for the NBA team in downtown Milwaukee.
The images images reflect the plans that will be submitted today for the final stage of the design approval process with the city, the team said. Kansas City-based Populous is leading the design team for the project, which also includes Milwaukee-based Eppstein Uhen Architects and Kansas City-based HNTB. The new arena will have about 17,500 seats. By comparison, the BMO Harris Bradley Center has about 18,600 seats for basketball.
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The exterior design for the 714,000-square-foot arena will include a hand-crafted zinc patina exterior, punctuated by nodes of glass to highlight activity within.
“The hand-crafted zinc and glass exterior wraps the energy of a multi-purpose arena full of social gathering spaces and a new public plaza extends the development as a year-round catalyst for the transformation of downtown Milwaukee,” said Brad Clark, senior principal at Populous. “Inspired by the natural beauty of Wisconsin’s rivers, lakes and forests, this new Wisconsin landmark will stand out as an iconic addition to the cityscape and seamlessly connect with surrounding neighborhoods.”
The interior design for the seating bowl will be optimized for basketball viewing with most of the seats in the lower level closer to the action, the team said. That is a big change from the more hockey-centric design of the BMO Harris Bradley Center, which had more seats on the upper level.
The new arena will still have the flexibility to host hockey games, end stage and center stage concerts, family shows, circuses and ice events, as well as open-floor exhibitions, the Bucks say.
Both the upper and lower levels will be accessed by spectators from the top down, which the Bucks say will create a more efficient seating pattern free of breaks.
The design also features open and transparent concourses, additional social spaces within view of the action, and a variety of experiential and premium seating options.
The $500 million arena will be the anchor for a mixed-use district that the owners of the Bucks plan to create, which will include an additional $500 million in ancillary development around the arena.
“Bringing this arena to fruition is certainly the first big step in creating the vision for the arena district neighborhood, but it will also serve to represent our city and state in a way that we have not seen before,” said Greg Uhen of Eppstein Uhen. “People will be amazed at how well this new venue enhances the experience for all patrons, not just for world class NBA basketball, but for all events hosted here.”
Construction for the arena is expected to begin in July and be complete in August of 2018.
“We’re just months away from seeing the new home of the Milwaukee Bucks and our collective efforts to revitalize Milwaukee begin to move from vision to reality,” said Bucks president Peter Feigin. “We look forward to working closely with public officials and the entire community over the next several months to finalize the design and construction plans so that we can begin to create long-lasting jobs and economic opportunity in Milwaukee.”
