Downtown L.A. Stadium Plans Fall Flat

Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne takes a look at the proposals and finds few redeeming qualities.

"To a large extent, the lack of architectural ambition evident in the designs comes as little surprise. Anyone who has spent much time downtown knows AEG is hardly a patron of innovative architecture.

But there were glimmers, when AEG began to explore the idea of building a stadium downtown, that it might take a more active interest in architecture and urban design this time around. In part this had to do with the involvement of Casey Wasserman, who has teamed with AEG's Tim Leiweke and Ted Tanner on the stadium planning and who is fairly savvy about contemporary architecture. Early in the process, AEG held preliminary conversations with a small number of architects who are significantly more adventurous than the ones it later engaged formally. But conservatism won out in the end.

The proposals for the stadium - which will be squeezed between Staples Center and the L.A. Convention Center, and require some convention facilities to be rebuilt, presumably on AEG's dime, along Pico Boulevard - fall short on more than just aesthetic grounds. They are also fairly timid in their thinking about the future of downtown."