CHICAGO | Da Bears | New Domed Lakefront Stadium Proposal

[mh777]

Holy shit! Incredible. I love the creation of all the green space where the old stadium sat. I would venture to guess this will end up being much more than $4.6b though.

[BVictor1]

[Busy Bee]

I don't know...

Not sure about the actual architecture. Getting major bidet toilet seat vibes.

[southoftheloop]

The public space looks great. The actual stadium seems uninspired

[Randomguy34]

The exterior looks like a bike helmet from the year 2040

[BVictor1]

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/poli...-stadium-plans

[twister244]

Originally Posted by Randomguy34

The exterior looks like a bike helmet from the year 2040

I actually like it.... Especially the cool nod to the Bears colors with the coloring on top.

Is it the coolest design ever? No, but it looks good to me. I'm more impressed, as others noted, is the integration of the green space. Fucking gorgeous, especially seeing the old columns with the modern stadium.....

[Steely Dan]

The big glass window wall opening the stadium to the primo skyline view is pretty damn cool.

Anyone hear a capacity number?

The NFL's #3 city should have one of its biggest stadiums.

[Toasty Joe]

higher quality pics here: https://stadium.chicagobears.com/

This would be a huge improvement to the area, but we should be using that money more effectively. Hope they find private funding!

[BVictor1]

Originally Posted by Toasty Joe

higher quality pics here: https://stadium.chicagobears.com/

This would be a huge improvement to the area, but we should be using that money more effectively. Hope they find private funding!

[nomarandlee]

Completely uninspired. It looks like a total retread of Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (which I went to two years ago and was not blown away by). If they were to find inspiration from recent NFL stadiums, I wish they would have gone more with TCF Bank in Minneapolis. The adjacent POMO museum/retail wings are fugly.

The only real saving grace is the opening on the stadium's north side, which looks out onto the skyline. Most of that will not be visible from inside the stadium though.

Replacing the current Soldier Field with 1 billion dollar Kentucky blue grass playfields? A gigantic waste of money.

[r18tdi]

Originally Posted by BVictor1

Lower left structure with the pool must be the hotel (which will be cut from the plan as a sacrificial bargaining chip with FotP).

It also looks like the new "field" space is an elevated green roof. Maybe to conceals all the parking?

[lakeshoredrive]

The top of the stadium would look really cool at night time lit up.

[lakeshoredrive]

I submitted a few constructive feedbacks and questions on their website. Everyone should do the same.

[r18tdi]

Designer is Manica Architecture, a firm that specializes in stadia, including Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. They're led by David Manica who was with HOK prior.

[Halsted & Villagio]

Originally Posted by nomarandlee

Completely uninspired. It looks like a total retread of Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas (which I went to two years ago and was not blown away by). If they were to find inspiration from recent NFL stadiums, I wish they would have gone more with TCF Bank in Minneapolis. The adjacent POMO museum/retail wings are fugly.

The only real saving grace is the opening on the stadium's north side, which looks out onto the skyline. Most of that will not be visible from inside the stadium though.

Replacing the current Soldier Field with 1 billion dollar Kentucky blue grass playfields? A gigantic waste of money.

Thou dost protest too much my friend. You are showing obvious bias with your post. The project may be many things but “uninspired” is not one of them. The whole space has been literally transformed. I mean, from soup to nuts save the historical colonnades, it is a brand new space. By all objective standards, that takes “inspiration”.

The whole thing is spectacular, and a major boon to the city of Chicago and its citizens. This reminds of millennium park 2.0 — vast, imaginative, multi-functional - a place where all of Chicagoland and visitors alike can gather and enjoy the city.

And yes… it should satisfy the Friends of the Parkers who love to bitch and moan about anything that slightly resembles “progress”. This plan essentially keeps everything that is currently there, in place, and just reconfigures it. The stadium moved, with the green space simply being shifted and activated like never before.

[Kngkyle]

The stadium is fine, nothing super unique or anything, but do we really want some even more expensive monument like what LA built? I'm perfectly fine with the stadium being average but the surrounding environment being spectacular, which is what this plan appears to be doing.

Compare this to LA....

[r18tdi]

Originally Posted by Halsted & Villagio

This plan essentially keeps everything that is currently there, in place, and just reconfigures it. The stadium moved, with the green space simply being shifted and activated like never before.

It's not just "moving the stadium."

I'm seeing a lot of new buildings, including the hotel and adapting the Soldier Field footprint beneath the colonnade into a massive structure (the green space is actually a green roof).

Unless all of those buildings are owned by the city, this will be pretty controversial. Even then, I can't see FotP going for it.

[ChicagoLVR]

Cool, but why a publicly funded hotel?

[pilsenarch]

There also appears to be a new above ground parking structure (for tailgating no doubt) between the stadium and Lakefront Center...

Yes, hotel, office space, entertainment district?

All of this is totally against the law and the lakefront protection ordinance...