Each year more than 110 million people gather
in crowded bars or sit on comfortable sofas to
enjoy what is by far the most-watched broadcast
event in America — the Super Bowl. Across the
US, major cities compete to host the NFL final
and in 2019 Atlanta is home of Super Bowl LIII.
This time the Big Game got even bigger, launching
the commemorations for the 100th season of the
National Football League. The 53rd edition is
not the first one for the capital of Georgia
though. People still remember the year 2000’s
competition due to the unusual ice storms that
froze the city and a spectacular tackle during
the last few seconds of the game — the One Yard
Short. Back then, the Super Bowl used to be a
one-day show about the Sunday’s final with
just a few side events. Over the years, it has
evolved into a much larger and more complex
ten-day urban festival.
During the weeks preceding the game, the
host city typically transforms its appearance
and disrupts its everyday dynamics. An
ephemeral “city” gets built within the permanent
urban fabric, with temporary structures
popping up both in the area surrounding the
stadium and in the downtown streets. As
expected, broadcast booths then accommodate
a myriad of networks and provisional
infrastructures support the demanding
operations for the Super Bowl.
Global attention and the significant influx of
fans into town also present a fertile ground for
collateral entertaining activities. Exhibitions
and music performances are in fact the main
attractions during the nine days leading up to
the competition. When the largest football-
themed developments are the NFL Tailgate,
Super Bowl Live and SB Experience, the most
elaborate construction for a concert experience
revolves around the DirecTV Super Saturday
Night, a live show that in the past has featured
artists such as Bruno Mars, Jay-Z and Beyoncé,
Pharrell Williams and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Over the years, both the size and complexity
of this concert venue have grown exponentially,
reflecting the evolving trend of the Super Bowl.
It started off in 2010 as an outdoor celebrity
football game on the beach of Miami that
culminated with a small music performance.
Since then the “beach” was trucked to various
other cities. In 2014 the operation involved one
million pounds of sand brought in through a
snowstorm in New York City. Beach Bowl during
the day, the two-level tent space was converted
within six hours into a nightclub for the evening.
In Phoenix the programme expanded into a
three-day music and food festival that took over
a 42-acre field to accommodate four stages.
As the programme expanded so did the
ambitions of the venue, forcing to change up the
design approach from purely reconfiguring a
temporary steel tent. For the 2016 Super Bowl
in San Francisco, a 100-year-old former warship
factory was converted into a three-level, dual-
stage venue that weaved its steel and timber
structure into the existing framework. A similar
approach was employed for Minneapolis, where
last year an old armory was renovated to host a
concert series on the SB weekend. The place now
operates as a permanent cultural venue. This
time in Atlanta the DirecTV event took place in
the Atlantic Station neighbourhood, a couple of
miles from the Mercedes-Benz Stadium the
innovative retractable-roof arena where the
February 3rd final was played. The centrepiece
is a three-level hybrid and custom steel structure
with a capacity of 10,000 people and over
100,000 square-feet large, half the size of a
typical indoor concert venue such as Madison
Square Garden in New York or the Pala Alpitour
in Turin. The venue was conceptualised by
executive producer Jack Murphy, the creative
mind of large-scale Super Bowl shows for
almost three decades.Behind the scenes of this
“nomadic” entertainment experience, there is
a year-long rigorous design and managing
process. Tight contextual constraints and time
pressure force the phases of the design and
construction to merge into a chain of immediate
decisions, often going straight from the 3D
model into the fabricator’s hands for instant
production. Reusable materials as well as the
trusses, steel and timber are trucked in
from Las Vegas. Yet the majority of the
labour and resources are assembled locally to
build this massive structure over a period of just
45 days. By combining experimental spatial
explorations with cutting-edge technological
solutions, the project expands beyond musical
performances, incorporating augmented and
virtual reality as well as interactive video walls
and hologram displays.
In Atlanta a sequential setup has been designed
that explores a diversified user engagement,
from both a visual and acoustic point of view.
The exterior of the structure is animated
with double-sided projection mapping that
unfolds over the main entrance, pinpointing the
event as a temporary landmark in the city. But
if on the one hand the Super Bowl is a ten-day
spectacle for the more than one million visitors
that take over Atlanta, on the other hand it is a
ten-year opportunity for its residents. As for
any city hosting such an impactful event,
the Big Game is in fact a rare occasion for
boosting economic development, improving
transport infrastructures, and showing off
to fellow Americans and to the whole world
the cultural values of the local community.
To that end, the Atlanta Super Bowl LIII
Host Committee (the planning team that acts
as the liaison between the NFL, the City ofFor the American football
final, an ephemeral city
works its way into the
urban fabric, offering its
inhabitants a unique
opportunity
Ernest Shaw, Atlanta Strong (p. 105, 1)Yehimi Cambrón, Monuments: We Carry the Dreams (p. 105, 2)Yehimi Cambrón, Freedom Fighters (p. 105, 3)Shanequa Gay, Excuse Me while I Kiss the SkyMuhammad Yungai, Community Roots (p. 105, 5)