The end of tradition: the last report about about Kaunas Žalgiris arena
Two years in a row at the end of November I presented brief reports about ongoing process of Žalgiris arena construction in Kaunas. The arena which is for a while the biggest and most modern arena in a region. Today I am finishing this tradition: arena is finished and functions. But last year I promised to prepare the finalizing report one year later and I am trying to keep my promises:
The arena is functioning for a nearly half a year now. It hosted the main sportive event of this year - the final stage of European basketball championships. And some conclusions could be drawn even now.
At moment this is the biggest indoor arena in the Baltic region. With it's capacity of 15500 spectators during sporting events and 17000 during concerts Žalgiris arena is among 20 biggest indoor arenas in Europe. If we will try to evaluate the arena under some degree of "advance" then this arena is among Top 5 arenas in Europe. It is typical North American style arena: very modern and in principle successful if we will count only technological and functional solutions used. As states many specialists in the field with the design of indoor arenas interesting thing happened: for many years the design of arenas in Europe stagnated while in North America active process of development went on. This was probably caused by the fact that in America always were strong and influential indoor games leagues such NBA (National Basketball Association) or NHL (National Hockey League). During 30-40 years there were found and developed various solutions in America that became "must-to-be" for a modern arena. As a result today bigger part of most technologically and functionally advanced arenas in Europe are in the eastern part of the continent - they were built in recent decade and the experience got in North America has been borrowed more eagerly here. Among them we could mention Zagreb and Split arenas in Croatia, former Saska arena in Prague, Minsk-arena, Arena Riga or Siemens arena in Vilnius, etc. (of course such situation wouldn't last forever, e.g. as I know in Stockholm is going on construction of new arena which could be called super-arena; their financial opportunities are better). Some of those arenas were even built using typical North American designs as has been done using Canadian projects in Vilnius and Riga. Žalgiris arena also has strong ties with USA: it was designed by Kaunas architects E. Miliūnas and A. Ramanauskas but they were supported and helped by Detroit based architect Algimantas Bublys (author of at least 6 arenas in various American cities). This support was crucial to achieve functional and technological superiority. Another thing is the architectural solution: here the question isn't so clear.
Žalgiris arena significantly activated show life in this town. Despite that arena is hosting concerts only from late September here were performances of a lot of show-people. Among them stars of our days such as James Blunt, "Hurts" or Lenny Cravitz, of course some veterans such as E.L.O, Jean-Michelle Jarre, Mirreille Mathieu, Russian performers Alexanedr Malinin or Nikolay Baskov, etc. And it seems that up to moment all performances attracted sufficient number of participants. The technical capabilities of arena will be tested in February by the famous group "Rammstein" while the capabilities of spectators will be tested last week of December when a bulk of retired performers will visit arena (and other towns here too): Toto Coutugno, Suzie Quatro, Chris Norman and Bonie Tyler, Moscow city ballet, ice show "Burning ice" (for me will be interesting the capabilities of our spectators to eat Suzie Quatro on December 30 and Chris Norman with Bonie Tyler on December 31 - new year evening). Žalgiris arena now is in active competition with Siemens arena in Vilnius and I need to admit that the experience of Siemens is still seen: they in the meantime attracted Elton John and while the Žalgiris arena and other towns will host the performances of Grand cirque of China in the middle of December Vilnius arena will host probably most famous cirque group in the world - "Cirque du Soleil" from Canada same days.
But that's enough to talk let's see. First of all I will repeat the photos illustrating the situation in the same place in 2008,2009 and 2010 at the end of November.
2008:
2009:
2010:
Now when are coming from the side of old town you will see this view:
And hence is the first controversy - the industrial (loft style) exterior ( I remember when Miliūnas said that his arena is the man without complexes and women will never understand this). But I am convinced that such design was caused by the budget of arena (the cost of construction was about 50 mln. eur):
The external solution was inspired by the Pentagon building exterior in Washington . I don't know ... This side could be called the facade of the arena:
But functionally solution is successful - the entrances and exits are very convenient, there are no crowds, it is easy to find your sector etc.:
The main pedestrian entrance is from the second floor but it is possible to use first floor too:
One of the characteristic elements of this arena - equipment used was left for public observation. Like pirced body:
Some exterior elements are good but some looks strange to me: this is wavy parapets:
Rusty wall has been used from the river side:
With the arena nearby Akropolis parking got more sensible look:
One of the few arenas in Europe at moment were sportsmen and performers may go directly by car and bus to the hall or locker-room:
Improvised underground street:
From distance the backside of the arena looks like:
I was still once inside the arena and don't have own photos. So only few photos from other sources.
Crowd during Euroleagye basketball game - here arena seems too big to me. I think that it is incovenient to see the game from upper floor:
And crow before concert of Lenny Crawitz (from kasvykstyakaune.lt):
For the end of report: two new neighbors - arena and parking:
The arena is functioning for a nearly half a year now. It hosted the main sportive event of this year - the final stage of European basketball championships. And some conclusions could be drawn even now.
At moment this is the biggest indoor arena in the Baltic region. With it's capacity of 15500 spectators during sporting events and 17000 during concerts Žalgiris arena is among 20 biggest indoor arenas in Europe. If we will try to evaluate the arena under some degree of "advance" then this arena is among Top 5 arenas in Europe. It is typical North American style arena: very modern and in principle successful if we will count only technological and functional solutions used. As states many specialists in the field with the design of indoor arenas interesting thing happened: for many years the design of arenas in Europe stagnated while in North America active process of development went on. This was probably caused by the fact that in America always were strong and influential indoor games leagues such NBA (National Basketball Association) or NHL (National Hockey League). During 30-40 years there were found and developed various solutions in America that became "must-to-be" for a modern arena. As a result today bigger part of most technologically and functionally advanced arenas in Europe are in the eastern part of the continent - they were built in recent decade and the experience got in North America has been borrowed more eagerly here. Among them we could mention Zagreb and Split arenas in Croatia, former Saska arena in Prague, Minsk-arena, Arena Riga or Siemens arena in Vilnius, etc. (of course such situation wouldn't last forever, e.g. as I know in Stockholm is going on construction of new arena which could be called super-arena; their financial opportunities are better). Some of those arenas were even built using typical North American designs as has been done using Canadian projects in Vilnius and Riga. Žalgiris arena also has strong ties with USA: it was designed by Kaunas architects E. Miliūnas and A. Ramanauskas but they were supported and helped by Detroit based architect Algimantas Bublys (author of at least 6 arenas in various American cities). This support was crucial to achieve functional and technological superiority. Another thing is the architectural solution: here the question isn't so clear.
Žalgiris arena significantly activated show life in this town. Despite that arena is hosting concerts only from late September here were performances of a lot of show-people. Among them stars of our days such as James Blunt, "Hurts" or Lenny Cravitz, of course some veterans such as E.L.O, Jean-Michelle Jarre, Mirreille Mathieu, Russian performers Alexanedr Malinin or Nikolay Baskov, etc. And it seems that up to moment all performances attracted sufficient number of participants. The technical capabilities of arena will be tested in February by the famous group "Rammstein" while the capabilities of spectators will be tested last week of December when a bulk of retired performers will visit arena (and other towns here too): Toto Coutugno, Suzie Quatro, Chris Norman and Bonie Tyler, Moscow city ballet, ice show "Burning ice" (for me will be interesting the capabilities of our spectators to eat Suzie Quatro on December 30 and Chris Norman with Bonie Tyler on December 31 - new year evening). Žalgiris arena now is in active competition with Siemens arena in Vilnius and I need to admit that the experience of Siemens is still seen: they in the meantime attracted Elton John and while the Žalgiris arena and other towns will host the performances of Grand cirque of China in the middle of December Vilnius arena will host probably most famous cirque group in the world - "Cirque du Soleil" from Canada same days.
But that's enough to talk let's see. First of all I will repeat the photos illustrating the situation in the same place in 2008,2009 and 2010 at the end of November.
2008:
2009:
2010:
Now when are coming from the side of old town you will see this view:
And hence is the first controversy - the industrial (loft style) exterior ( I remember when Miliūnas said that his arena is the man without complexes and women will never understand this). But I am convinced that such design was caused by the budget of arena (the cost of construction was about 50 mln. eur):
The external solution was inspired by the Pentagon building exterior in Washington . I don't know ... This side could be called the facade of the arena:
But functionally solution is successful - the entrances and exits are very convenient, there are no crowds, it is easy to find your sector etc.:
The main pedestrian entrance is from the second floor but it is possible to use first floor too:
One of the characteristic elements of this arena - equipment used was left for public observation. Like pirced body:
Some exterior elements are good but some looks strange to me: this is wavy parapets:
Rusty wall has been used from the river side:
With the arena nearby Akropolis parking got more sensible look:
One of the few arenas in Europe at moment were sportsmen and performers may go directly by car and bus to the hall or locker-room:
Improvised underground street:
From distance the backside of the arena looks like:
I was still once inside the arena and don't have own photos. So only few photos from other sources.
Crowd during Euroleagye basketball game - here arena seems too big to me. I think that it is incovenient to see the game from upper floor:
And crow before concert of Lenny Crawitz (from kasvykstyakaune.lt):
For the end of report: two new neighbors - arena and parking: