Thunder Stadium, essential to a new urban mixed-use development, is part of a collection of buildings and urban spaces that include a public plaza, high-rise and mid-rise residential towers flanking the SW and SE sides of the plaza, a Youth Soccer Academy located NE of the plaza, shopping and retail area at ground-level, and a parking structure for the entire area. Thunder Stadium, located at the highest elevation of the complex, commands a pivotal position as it grounds the entire development through its scale, siting, and purpose of use, and deftly operates at two scales of influence, playing a role both within the immediate context, and through its presence in the greater urban stage beyond. At the local scale, the building holds the corner and relates to the ground in a responsive manner, animating the street with public spaces perceived through glazed expanses. As it rises, however, an appropriated mega-scale begins to emerge as the building is transformed into a monolithic object capable of distinct readings from afar. The massing, defined both by the program elements it houses, as well as the height restrictions imposed upon it, is to be both a player central to the new campus, and to the city at-large.
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
Size: 600,000sf (400,000sf stadium + 200,000sf hotel and retail)
Status: Unbuilt
Select Awards:
56th Progressive Architecture Awards, Honorable Mention in Architecture