A sphere-shaped event hall covered with LED lights will be opened in the fall in Las Vegas, USA. The architectural office that designed the Sphere event hall is also involved in the Helsinki Garden project.
In Las Vegas, USA, passers-by near The Venetian Resort were surprised on July 4: The Moon appeared in the middle of the casino city. And the globe. And of course, finally, the American flag in the shape of a ball, after all, it was the country’s independence day.
It was about the test times of the LED screen of the city’s new Sphere event hall. Sphere is a 111 meter high and 157 meter wide spherical building. Its 54,000 square meter exterior is completely covered in LED lights. This makes it possible to run animations on the entire building, turning it into, for example, the Moon or fireworks.
According to CNN the event hall will start its actual operation in September. Then none other than stadium rock legend U2 will inaugurate it with a concert series.
In Yankees, everything is bigger, and so are the price tags: Sphere has paid 2.3 billion dollars. Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. (MSG Sports), the holding company that owns sports teams, is behind the construction project.
Sphere was designed by the large international architectural firm Populous, which specializes in sports halls, stadiums, exhibition centers and organizing special events. For example, Stockholm’s Friends Arena is designed by Populous.
In Finland, Populous is known, for example, for the Helsinki Garden project. Garden’s design work, which had already lasted ten years, now moved forward in June. In this case, Helsinki the urban environment committee decided keep the hall plot reservation until 2025 and try to find a comprehensive solution to promote the project during the current year.
of the Helsinki Garden project according to the website Populous designs the project’s event arena.
The world’s largest ball building
Whatever kind of arena might come to Helsinki, it will have a tough competitor in Las Vegas.
Sphere is the world’s largest spherical building with a size of 81,300 square meters. It contains seats for about 18,600 people. The inside of the event hall is also covered with LED screens, which makes it possible to run animations around various presentations. The 10,000 seats are equipped with haptics, a technology that affects the sense of touch, which aims to provide viewers with bodily sensations alongside the audiovisual bombardment.
The grandstand can also be converted into standing places, in which case the building will attract around 20,000 people.
It is the most expensive entertainment center ever in Las Vegas, known for its spectacular casinos, hotels and stadiums. Different shows and concerts are planned to be organized in Sphere, but possibly also martial arts matches and E-sports events.
Sphere was originally supposed to pay 1.2 billion dollars, but changes made on the fly, construction work interrupted by the corona virus and supply chain problems dragged the price up by more than a billion.
MSG Sports plans to build a similar event hall in London as well.
Sources: Reuters, CNN