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Dive brief:
- The NBA’s newest arena has finished construction. On Thursday night, the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California opened its doors to the public for the first time with a concert by singer Bruno Mars.
- An AECOM Hunt and Turner joint venture broke ground on the $2 billion venue in September 2021 and finished construction this month. AECOM also provided designs for the project. The Clippers, who used to share Crypto.com Arena with the Los Angeles Lakers, will move to the court this fall.
- The dome includes many high-tech amenities, but hiccups led to delays for the evening’s “24K Magic.” Because of a problem with facial recognition inputthousands of fans were stuck outside the venue, delaying Thursday’s concert, ABC 7 reported.
Diving knowledge:
For any type of event, customers must download a special app and register for an account in order to enter. They can then create a “Game Face ID” that allows them to enter the site without scanning a ticket, according to ABC 7.
But technology isn’t the only aspect of the project that makes the Intuit Dome revolutionary, organizers say.
The venue with 17,700 seats it houses five basketball courtsa practice facility and training center and has an outdoor plaza with two bars, a restaurant and an equipment store, according to Henderson Engineers of Lenexa, Kansas, the project’s mechanical engineer. The arena also has the world’s largest “Halo Board,” a double-sided, oval-shaped 4K scoreboard with a screen roughly one acre in size.
According to a statement from Henderson, two megawatts of rooftop solar panels and 11 megawatts of on-site battery storage were designed to help the Intuit Dome operate carbon-free. The company claims that the all-electric venue will not produce pollution from natural gas or other fossil fuels.
Henderson also incorporated sustainable heat pumps, heat recovery chillers, magnetic chillers and supply air distribution under the arena bowl seat, which he said is an innovative and efficient system to provide ventilation and air conditioning from under the seats instead of the upper ducts.
The project achieved LEED-Platinum certification, the highest sustainability rating from the US Green Building Council.
The Intuit Dome is slated to host the 2026 NBA All-Star Game as well as serve as a venue for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
