Paul Brown Stadium
Cincinnati
NBBJ

With a contemporary vocabulary and a decidedly urban approach, NBBJ designs a very good neighbor

© Tim Griffith

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By David Mohney

Like many other stadiums and ballparks built during the past two decades, Cincinnati’s Paul Brown Stadium was designed as a part of an overall urban design program, intended to tie a major entertainment venue into the improvement of the district around it. But unlike many of these efforts, which use historicist designs as an anchor, Paul Brown Stadium is thoroughly contemporary in its imagery.

Even with a comprehensive urban plan in place, it is in the architectural composition of the stadium itself that the designer’s sensitivity to the urban context shines. Unlike several generations of closed-in stadiums, this facility for Cincinnati’s football franchise, the Bengals, opens itself to the city by breaking up the seating bowl. Seating sections are organized into separate grandstands on the sides and ends of the playing field. This has the effect of minimizing corner seats, placing more seats on the primary sides of the field and thus giving a much higher percentage of the audience better views of the game. Better views make better customers and provide higher ticket revenues for the team.

Yet there are intangible benefits, as well. Paul Brown Stadium has 67,000 seats, but it invites the entire city in at every opportunity. The gaps between grandstands provide wonderful views both in and out of the stadium. Large sections of seated fans will be visible and audible to those merely passing by, imparting an infectious sense of participation in a spectacle. Views out of the stadium are remarkable, as well; they afford the fans a panorama not only of downtown but also of the riverfront and the historic waterfront cities of northern Kentucky across the Ohio River, along with the bridges connecting both sides of the river.

The exterior combines masonry, translucent glazed skin, and perforated stainless-steel panels. Angular edges emphasize the change of materials, giving the complex a sense of motion and urban vitality. And the difference between day and night, when the translucent and perforated exterior skin systems are lit from within, is another attribute. Lighting stanchions above the sidelines and major electronic signs in the end zones are also separate elements, further breaking down the scale from stadium to urban assemblage. The exposed structural elements, most notable in a tensioned truss system for the grandstands and the cantilevered lights and signage, resonate with the historic Roebling Bridge (a precursor of the Brooklyn Bridge), as well as other bridges for both rail and vehicular traffic nearby. Thus, in terms of its apparent massing, materials, and methods of construction, the stadium is a remarkably good complement to its neighbors.

See the May 2002 issue of Architectural Record for full coverage of this project.

Formal name of Project:
Paul Brown Stadium

Location:
Cincinnati www.rcc.org

Gross square footage:
1.8 million sq ft

Total Construction Cost:
$310 million

Owner:
Hamilton County, Ohio www.hamilton-co.org

Architect:
NBBJ
13335 Maxella Avenue
Marina del Rey, CA 90292
Tel. (310) 448-9600
Fax (310) 448-9900
www.nbbj.com