About the Project
The 21,000-seat, world-class arena is home to the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, WNBA's Atlanta Dream and was home to the Atlanta Thrashers NHL franchise. In addition to hosting basketball and hockey games, the arena hosts a variety of events including concerts, stage and theatrical performances, family shows and large-scale meetings. The complex was built-upon the former site of the Omni, which was demolished in July 1997.
Of the $10 million in Value Engineering solutions integrated during pre-construction, the most significant was the reuse of the Omni foundation system. This integration into the design resulted in significant savings in schedule, design and cost of sitework and foundation systems.
Since completion, the arena has become known for its unique exterior consisting of Italian granite skin and angled steel columns that spell out ""ATLANTA"" on one side of the building and ""CNN"" on the other side where the arena adjoins to the CNN Center. On the interior, the arena is known for its unique seating plan where approximately 60% of the seats are located on the lowest level, closer to the playing surface and action, while still having a significant number of revenue-generating, luxury seats. This intimacy was achieved by aligning all 96 luxury suites and 2,893 club seats along one side of the playing surface and the general admission seating along the other three sides.
