Project Type:

Sports Venue, Arena
Design Services: Exterior Architectural Design

Owner:

City of Lincoln/ West Haymarket Joint Public Agency

Project Address:

400 Pinnacle Arena Drive
Lincoln, NE 68508

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: DLR Group
Associate Architects: The Clark Enersen Partners, BVH Architects
Exterior Envelope Design Team: Gill Peace, Mike Daily, Bryan Solko, Ryan Watson, Matt Bowers, Jim Smith.
Contractor: Mortenson Construction and Hampton Enterprises

Fine Print:

The design work for this Project was completed by Peace prior to founding Peace Studio Architects, Inc.

Partner Links

To learn more about the Pinnacle Bank Arena, visit:
http://www.pinnaclebankarena.com/
http://www.haymarketnow.com/

Pinnacle Bank Arena

The 15,000 seat Pinnacle Bank Arena is a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose venue hosting year round entertainment including concerts, family shows, conventions, and sporting events. The new home of Husker men’s and women’s basketball teams is located on land recently reclaimed from unused rail lines on the west edge of Lincoln’s historic Haymarket district. An impressive public and private investment in hospitality, residential and office projects have followed the Pinnacle Bank Arena to the new Canopy Street area.

The contextual warehouse buildings offer design inspiration yet the arena embodies a modern aesthetic. The exterior envelope incorporates self-finishing and expressive materials like: board-formed and smooth finish concrete, 3 types of metal panel and clear glazing. The building reinforces its connection to the surrounding community with large expanses of glass and a roof deck that offers view to the state capitol.

Arena Design Q & A:
How many firms and individuals designed the Pinnacle Bank Arena? Many, to be clear, Peace’s contributions to the project are based on his role as exterior envelope design team leader. The envelope design team included the expertise of a dedicated group of professionals including: Mike Daily, Bryan Solko, Ryan Watson, Matt Bowers, and Jim Smith.
A more complete listing of the firms as well as the lead design professionals involved in the design of the Arena include:
DLR Group- Architect of Record: Stan Meradith, Greg Garlock.
The Clark Enersen Group and BVH Architects-Associate Architects
Buro Happhold- Structural Engineers: Erleen Hatfield
DLR Group- Associate Structural Engineers: Matt Farber

What does exterior envelope design mean? For 3 different Architecture Firms to efficiently work together to complete a large project, a reasonable division of labor is required. While all 3 firms regularly collaborated and interacted with each other, the general design efforts were assigned to each firm accordingly:

• DLR Group- Overall project coordination and communication with Owner, programming and space planning, Floor plan and building section layout, technical layouts and adjacencies.
• The Clark Enersen Partners- horizontal design and improvements of the site surrounding the building envelope including the south entry plaza, north parking and loading/ service zones as well as the complete design and documentation of two distinct components of the project:
  • Attached arena parking garage at the southwest corner of the building
  • Pedestrian ramp and north entry plaza located on the east edge of the site.
• Exterior envelope design means- design of the exterior of the building including:
  • Arena shape and exterior wall geometry.
  • Fenestration
  • Roof Terrace
  • Materials
  • Etc.

Can you share some of the Progress Design Images and Concepts? Progress design involved extensive modeling of the proposed arena design with detailed context models of the surrounding area. The context models allowed us to review each opening in the arena. We wanted to connect the arena to the community with views into and out of the building. Views back to: Memorial Stadium, UNL Campus, Haymarket Park and the State Capitol were important. Images below from the March 2011 design model are close to the final design. These images include “placeholders” for the RailYard and Canopy Lofts projects that were in design progress as well.