Design
Barclays Center is designed by the architect firm Ellerbe Becket (who has also designed TD Garden used by the Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins, Time Warner Cable Arena used by the Charlotte Bobcats, and Quicken Loans Arena used by the Cleveland Cavaliers), and New York City firm SHoP Architects.
Externally, the arena's basic shape is that of three articulated bands, and features a glass curtain wall covered by a 'latticework' made up of 12,000 preweathered steel panels, which are meant to evoke the image of Brooklyn's brownstones. An 117-by-56-foot (36 by 17 m) "Oculus" extends over a 5,660-square-foot (526 m2) section of the plaza outside of the main arena entrance, and contains an irregularly-shaped display screen that loops around on the inside of the structure.
The 38,885-square-foot (3,613 m2) entrance plaza features a $50 million "Transit Connection" structure that serves as the focal point of the plaza. This transit structure connects with the new Barclays Center subway station, designed by New York City firm Stantec, which connects to nine subway lines. As the basketball court is situated below ground level, the scoreboard is visible from the plaza.
The arena is pursuing LEED Silver certification.
The original design of the arena, by architect Frank Gehry, would have the arena's roof feature a park open only to residents of the Atlantic Yards complex, ringed by an open-air running track that doubled as a ice skating rink in winter with panoramic vistas facing Manhattan year-round; but those roof plans were scrapped due to Gehry's design being projected to put the cost of the arena at $1 billion, which was seen as being too expensive. Gehry's design was eventually replaced in September 2009 by the current Becket/SHoP design, which puts the arena costs at $800 million, although the final cost of the entire project is currently projected to be $1 billion.
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