Sincerest form of flattery
Architects look to Conseco Fieldhouse as inspiration for user-friendly FedExForum

By David Yawn

Rising out of the bluffs of the Memphis waterfront and within a ball's toss of Beale Street, the newest venue for professional basketball is a design showcase that borrows motifs and blends in some new ones.

The $225 million, 18,070-seat FedExForum, set to open in August, is inspired by Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, yet it has features and elements distinctly its own.

Joe Hall, spokesman for Ingram Group in Nashville, which represents the arena, said Conseco was used as a benchmark or departure point, but it served only in terms of initial inspiration and basic patterning of some elements.

advertisement

"Altogether, the Forum will be focused on great sight lines for basketball, adding up to a premier basketball arena," Hall said. "There are many facilities that are new and multi-use in the nation, and while FedExForum is multi-use its first priority is that every seat be a great one from which to watch a basketball game."

Both Conseco and FedExForum were designed by the major sports venue design firm of Kansas City-based Ellerbe Becket, although the latter was done in collaboration with Memphis-based Looney Ricks Kiss Architects.

Conseco has a 1950s retro style that mirrors a classical Indiana field house in the main entry area and pays homage to the state's rich basketball history. Throughout the concourses, teams, players and eras are recognized.

The main lobby has an old train station look with classic-design message boards and scoreboard.

"In Memphis, you'll get an intimate feeling - like you are on top of the game when you are watching the game in what is called the bowl or drum," Hall said.

The concourse in Memphis is intended to tell a story, too. Here, it will not hearken to the 50s but will fit in with the historic nature of Beale Street and the South Main Historic District, said Frank Ricks, a project lead with LRK. Rob Norcross of the same firm managed the project with Ricks, alongside team members from Ellerbe Becket.

The designers also are trying to promote a musical motif throughout the concourses of FedExForum.

Conseco was not meant to be the best venue for concert sound because it was designed to centrally accentuate cheering and applause, Hall said.

"For concerts, you want softer features up high," he added. "That's what you will find at FedExForum. If basketball is number one, concerts will be the B part or flipside. The goal was the best balance of blending those."

Once fans approach the entrance and go inside, they will see a continued ribbon of music influence in graphics and potentially some archival exhibits.

The seats will create a comfortable environment.

"What we know from a decade of The Pyramid Arena in downtown Memphis is that it has been an uncomfortable seating experience for many," Hall said. "These seats are wider with more leg room."

FedExForum will have state-of-the-art furnishings, fixtures and amenities, not just in terms of the skyboxes, suites and club seats, but in all the seats. The Web site attests to this in its virtual tour.

There will be four seated restaurants in the 805,850-sq.-ft. Forum. One will overlook the court and serve everything from cheeseburgers to prime rib and fish dishes.

Two main concourses with more than 100 points of sale for concessions and the sale of merchandise will pepper the interior, along with a sports bar with outdoor patio.

"The main lobby has the potential to become a civic space where people will want receptions," Ricks said. The L-shaped practice court right off the lobby will also be a potential place for receptions, he added.

The 45,000-lb. scoreboard will be 22 ft. high and 38 ft. wide and include two 360-degree full color LED screens on the top and bottom and four additional color video screens on all sides. The scoreboard and a planned marquee outside will be able to show road games.

Outside, much attention was paid to the roof so the giant building would not dominate the cityscape.

"We dealt with factors like putting a huge building next to a landmark like Beale Street while not overpowering the historic entertainment district," said Ricks, whose firm also designed the popular AutoZone Park for Redbirds baseball. "We definitely want them to complement each other. That's why we employed site-specific design driven by the context of the neighborhood. The outside is supposed to look evolved and eclectic like Beale Street."

On-site parking for 1,500 vehicles will accommodate visitors to the arena, complete with new designs of ramps that promote easier ingress and egress into the garage. A matrix of curbside parking areas and garages fan out in a patchwork pattern, providing additional parking in the vicinity. The bigger of these would be the MLGW and Peabody Place garages.

In the Grizzlies office building next to the forum a key anchor tenant will be the Rock and Soul Museum, a Smithsonian permanent collection.

The overall project's price tag is often quoted at $250 million, but that figure includes expenditures for renovations and upgrades at the nearby Pyramid (a few blocks down the trolley line to the north), land acquisition and soft costs. Construction of the arena itself is just under $200 million, Hall said.

"We tried to build the most diverse design team on any city project with the Forum and have three contracts with other architects, all minorities," Ricks said. They are John F. Williams Architects Inc., Self Tucker Architects Inc. and Bounds & Gillespie Architects.

One issue the team had to collaborate on was the high water table in Memphis. The site had to be dewatered with pumps and a passive subterranean drainage system. Beneath the floors are a gridwork of drainage pipes that feed into a central gathering location.

The arena also sits in a seismic zone.

"Other major factors were the presence of Beale Street and the fact that we sought solid revenue generation in terms of the layout - to capture as much fan revenue as possible," said Jon Niemuth, project designer with Ellerbe Becket.

Useful Resource:

For architectural renderings of FedExForum, go to:
http://www.nba.com/grizzlies/photogallery/arena_renderings

For a virtual tour of FedExForum, go to:
www.fedexforum.com