‘Emotionally overwhelming': Architect of new OKC arena shares inspiration, addresses feedback

Yahoo

4 days ago

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – News 4 caught up with the owner of the architectural company chosen by Oklahoma City to design a new, nearly $1 billion arena; and the future home of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
A first look at the designs was shown off in front of a sold-out crowd during Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt's State of the City address on Wednesday.
OKC Mayor David Holt unveils new arena renderings during his State of the City address
The Oklahoma City City Council hired MANICA Architecture for the project in October 2024. The Kansas City-based company specializes in sports and entertainment videos. It's designed with the NBA and NFL, including the Chase Center, Allegiant Stadium, and the new Nissan Stadium.
News 4 interviewed David Manica, owner of the company, after Wednesday's announcement to share more about the project.
Q: Talk about this day finally coming to fruition?
David Manica: Emotionally overwhelming. Absolutely. I'd seen that video 100 times over many months as it came together, and for me, I never got tired of watching it. I always, you know, it always stirred something in me, but to watch it in that room with 1,500 people who were seeing it for the first time was absolutely overwhelming. So, I had to get back up on stage and try not to tear up at the end.
Q: What does Oklahoma City's story mean to you, and how important was that to craft into the design?
David Manica: Well, it means everything to me, and it's what I built…my team and I built the whole concept of the project around is this sense of community, unity, and togetherness. I was asked in a few other interviews, you know, what sets, what makes this project Oklahoma City, what makes it Oklahoma, and for me it's all about the people.'
Q: You mentioned during your presentation you got feedback locally before you even came up with initial designs. How important and difficult was it to step back and not rush into something preliminarily?
David Manica: It took a lot of patience and it took a lot of courage to come here and not have anything to try to sell and instead just sell our ability to listen…I think it made all the difference in the world. I would never have come up with this idea in a vacuum.
Q: Do you have a good idea of how many iterations you came up with for this specific project?
David Manica: You know, we had four or five different versions of the same idea, and we began to refine it over time…We started with the circle, and then we began to think about concourses with 360-degree views, and that led us to the glass.
Q: What would you say stands out as the most striking characteristics of this project that set it apart from the Paycom Center?
David Manica: I think it's the glass façade and the idea that you look through the building. So that has to do with the idea of authenticity and integrity and all these things that I think are represented in the people and the spirit in the community of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma people.
Q: Did the Oklahoma City Thunder's championship win raise the stakes and pressure to get the design right?
David Manica: No, it didn't. I was, of course, hugely relieved and very happy, selfishly, that I'd walked into this unveiling with the Champions…This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me to get to unveil a project in this way to a community like this, for someone that just won a championship.
Q: Some Oklahomans have expressed concerns about the glass, given our weather patterns. What would you say to alleviate those?
David Manica: The glass façade's actually a really smart way to protect against all of those things and all the weather here in Oklahoma. I'll go through them one by one. So, first of all, the glass will have bird protection on it. So, the little dots that make sure the birds don't run into the building. So, we'll have that. We'll also have fritting and tinting to make sure that the glass is protecting the inside of the building from the hot sun in the summer times. And then it is both insulated and laminated, which will further from insulation and the heat of the summer and the cold in the winter, as well as the weather.
Q: There's a lot of woodwork in this design, can you speak to that?
David Manica: No one else has asked me that question. So this idea that, you look through the façade and you look to what's inside, we call that wood, all that the wood bowl, it kind of looks like a wood bowl. It is the vessel. It's the vessel for everything that happens inside of it, and so that vessel is intentionally designed out of a wood product.
Q: What's being done to ensure these designs are cost-efficient?
David Manica: I mean, that was a, that was an absolute hard line in the beginning. We have been careful to manage the size of the project and the decisions that we make each step of the way with the details. The glass façade is a great example. It actually saved us a lot of money to do a building that way. The best and most helpful thing that we're doing is, we have the contractors involved with this right now. So, as we make decisions, we're working with them in lockstep to make sure that we're making decisions that are in the best interests of the project, both from a fan experience and a results standpoint, but also from a cost standpoint.
The arena is expected to be completed in 2028. Paycom and the Oklahoma City Thunder mutually announced Monday that Paycom will not pursue naming rights of the new arena. Designs shared on Wednesday, Manica said, are conceptual and do not include the final plans. A frequently asked questions page has been set up on a new website dedicated to the project.
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