Downtown Atlanta is assured of a new Falcons stadium after a flurry of recent votes and a dollop of public funding. Now backers must determine what the $1 billion facility will look like.
Team executives and Georgia World Congress Center leaders wrapped up two days of interviews on Tuesday with five architecture firms seeking to design the retractable-roof stadium. Each firm delivered a lengthy presentation on their vision for the stadium, and officials are to make their decision in the next few weeks.
The five finalists are EwingCole, based in Philadelphia; HKS, of Dallas; Populous and 360 Architecture, both based in Kansas City; and Tvsdesign, of Atlanta (in partnership with Heery International and Gensler). All have experience on high-profile sports and entertainment projects.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank wants his vision for the retractable-roof stadium to "represent the finest of Atlanta's past and future" that adds an iconic asset to Atlanta's skyline. The design must not only house the NFL franchise but also a possible soccer team and compete for draws like the NCAA tournaments and presidential conventions.
Perhaps the biggest challenge is that the potential designers aren’t yet sure where the stadium will be built. The team prefers a site immediately south of the Georgia Dome, which would be demolished. But if officials aren’t able to buy two churches and other property in the area, the new stadium may be built about a half-mile to the north.
Still, Blank sees the design process as the “fun part” of the stadium construction after three years of daunting negotiations to secure partial public funding for the deal. This month, after a series of political twists, they secured final governmental approval for the new facility.
Under the deal, the Falcons and other private sources will pay about $800 million of the construction cost, with $200 million coming from bonds backed by Atlanta’s hotel-motel tax revenue. The same tax is projected to pump hundreds of millions more into the stadium toward financing, maintenance and operating costs over 30 years.
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