John King reviews the new Golden State Warriors arena in San Francisco

The best thing about Chase Center, the new $1.6 billion home of the Golden State Warriors, is the main attraction — that raucous enclosed oval where upward of 18,000 people can gather to watch the action. It’s a pure immersion in the moment, both lively and comfortable enough to atone for the confusing, though often satisfying, jumble of spaces elsewhere within the silvery orb

Can a sports stadium be at once populist and high-end? 

The San Francisco Chronicle's urban design critic John King finds a sort of balance at the new Chase Center, designed by Manica Architecture on an 11-acre site that includes design contributions from SHoP, Perkins and Will (Pfau Long), and SWA. 

King writes, "From the time the Warriors announced in 2012 their intent to return to San Francisco, Welts insisted that a key priority was to make longtime fans feel at home. During the time the players are on the court, slam dunk." That is, despite seating that is a bit too steeply raked and a "comical" collection of giant scoreboards. "Equally important," King adds, "the Warriors’ compound is a genuinely inviting addition to the Mission Bay landscape."

"Each element enriches the overall sense of place," King concludes, "whether it’s the surprisingly suave elegance of the resolutely horizontal office buildings, or the variations in scale between SWA’s constellation of plazas, passagewa...

Antonio Pacheco via Archinect - News http://bit.ly/2o8mxAN