That is very promising! I like their work. In other news, the Port Commission has set-up a community advisory committee to ensure neighbors of the project are involved and heard. Hopefully, that will help keep everyone happy while keeping the project on track. Here's the website if you want to keep abreast of the community-involvement process.

it'll be a tall order to compete with barclays center in brooklyn, but i'm pretty confident that we'll get an audacious design from the scandinavian team, which would go a long way to silencing the doubters. think of it: for a crew like snohetta, this is a career-making opportunity to create a globally-iconic building. sure, moma is huge, but this is something that could show up in elementary school textbooks in yemen if it's good enough. one can only assume that these folks will go to the styx and back to deliver an iconic design for us.

I love the project and it stretching activity along the embarcadero, and that location with a great design would be stunning. Cant wait to see it....

Ugh, scratch that. I just read that Sue Hestor was at the first meeting. Forget about this being productive in any way and prepare for nonsensical lawsuits. I didn't see her name on the committee roster, but she was quoted in a Matier & Ross article.

New specs and renderings were unveiled by Snohetta today:

http://www.nba.com/warriors/sf?venue

http://i.imgur.com/65b87.jpg

a few immediate thoughts:
1) hard to see the ferry stop, one would hope that it'd be better integrated or dropped completely, given that the ferry building is itself in such close proximity;
2) massing for the buildings on the opposite triangle are obviously designed to placate opposition from that quarter, and we already know that there'll be quite a large number of parking spaces there, pleasing neighbors immensely, even if it's all wrong;
3) the small building footprints and insane amount of plaza/public space are smart, very much what people want from the waterfront and greatly lessening the load the city backers will have to carry to push it forward;
4) the design is intelligent for this town: if it were super flamboyant, there'd be opposition on the basis of overly iconic and waterfront-changing grounds, if it weren't fairly spectacular, the movers would have trouble getting the plebs behind it. it strikes just the right balance.
5) finally, the white/gray theme is interesting in the context, not particularly consistent, it'd be interesting to see how this one pushes the waterfront forward (exploratorium and the cruise ship terminal were/are just depressing).

I don't have a problem with the area around the arena itself. I especially like the kayak and canoe loading area. But as far as the arena itself goes, that was a complete letdown. It looks like they tried to use a Cowboys Stadium futuristic design and ended up with the BOK Center in Tulsa. Would have liked to have seen something much better.

More renderings from sfgate's article:

http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/15/55/74.../3/628x471.jpg

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/15/55/74.../3/628x471.jpg

http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/15/55/74.../3/628x471.jpg

While I like the design of the arena, that is not the final design. This round of design was mainly used for planning how the area will be laid out. Detailed design work for the arena is still to come. Read the full article for a more detailed description.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/place/...ng-3951484.php

More details and better pics from WILLYGTO1 at SSC

Fantastic location...


http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=6306

Unveiled> Golden State Warriors Arena
Snohetta and AECOM reveal conceptual scheme for dramatic waterfront facility in San Francisco



http://archpaper.com/uploads/snohetta_sanfran_04.jpg



http://archpaper.com/uploads/snohetta_sanfran_06.jpg

Apparently the Giants are now against this arena going in at piers 30-32. So lame:

Really don't like this design, although the location is incredible. Just looks like an amorphous metallic blob. Considering what a great view of the bay this would eprovide, I'd like to see the interior windows look more like the earlier rendering:

http://a.espncdn.com/photo/2012/0522...nt_gb1_600.jpg

I hope they alter the hell out of this one.

Snøhetta architect Craig Dykers discusses his design concepts for the new Warriors arena on YouTube.

Not a lot of new info, but interesting to hear his thoughts on the architecture.

That design looks very nice!

I was wondering when this would happen. And it looks like it might! :)

agh, it sounds like a lot of what he talks about is now having to be re-worked

^Yeah, especially the views of the Bay Bridge from the south that they were trying to frame between the buildings. But I do like the idea of a back-up cruise ship terminal, which also could improve ferry docking as well. If it enables the approval from the Coastal Commission, it will be worth the delay.

I liked the location of the arena so I hope the design still turns out great. But if moving it means we get more stakeholders on board then I guess that's what it takes.

I'm predicting this will be the NIMBY shitshow of the decade. They gotta come out with all guns blazing.

Meh, I'm a bit optimistic. There aren't that many "NIMBYs" in that area since it's fairly new. Lots of ppl who are new to SF and more traffic and commerce in the area would tend to raise property values. Plus, the arena doesn't really block views.

I do think that public transit and traffic in that area needs to be improved ASAP if they want an arena there. Embarcadero -> NBA arena -> MLB stadium -> 4th Caltrain station, along with tons of high rise and mid-rise condos along the way means a ton of traffic