Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Warriors Arena topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Design tweaks aim to lower profile and add public space to proposed Warriors waterfront arena
Summary
Design team presented changes that lower the arena height, move the bowl seaward and add terraced public open space and a ramped promenade. Speakers praised increased public access and local hire commitments but neighbors raised traffic and height concerns.
Designers for the proposed Golden State Warriors waterfront arena returned to the Port Commission May 16 with a refined concept that the team said responds to city and agency feedback by reducing scale and increasing public access.
Byron Rhett, Planning and Development Director for the Port, and Nick Raider of Snohetta (the design lead) described a revised plan that moves the arena farther east, creates terraced "venue plaza" spaces, lowers the arena roof to about 125 feet, increases public open space to roughly 6.6-6.7 acres and reduces parking roughly 17-18 percent compared with earlier sketches. The changes include a broad ramped promenade along the arena's southern edge that designers said would provide continuous public access and elevated views to the Bay Bridge and the water.
"We've been able to increase the open space slightly from 50 to 53 percent," Rider said during the presentation, and the team noted other moves to improve sightlines, sustainability and stormwater treatment on site.
Support at the hearing came from business and tourism interests and many residents who said they welcomed a new waterfront magnet. "This gorgeous design respects the surrounding community and area," said Ariel Ungerleider Kelly, a South Beach resident and Warriors fan who described the project as an improvement over current derelict piers.
But neighbors and some community members expressed concerns about scale, cumulative impacts and neighborhood traffic. Garrett Law, a South Beach resident, said the neighborhood already hosts large events and warned the arena could boost pedestrian and vehicular flow substantially on many days of the year.
Maritime and public-trust advocates praised design moves that preserve maritime operations. Ellen Jonk, chair of the Maritime Commerce Advisory Committee, said the committee was pleased to see a deep-draft berth and ferry-berth options being considered and requested more detailed dimensional and operations work with Water Emergency Transit Authority and Port staff.
Next steps: staff will continue design and coordination with advisory committees and regulators (BCDC, State Lands) and will return with subsequent refinements, additional maritime-dimension details and the community advisory committee's feedback.
No formal approvals were requested at this informational presentation.
