Building Trades News

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By Roy San Filippo
Staff Writer

Union crews have been hard at work for nearly two years constructing the new state-of-the-art Nokia Theater at LA Live which is scheduled to open in mid-October.

The 7,100 seat, 260,000-square-feet $100 million project is part of the larger $1.7 billion LA Live development that will cover 28 acres around Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Developed by Anschutz Entertainment Group, LA Live will be highlighted by the Nokia Theater, a 40,000-square-feet outdoor plaza, an ESPN broadcast facility, restaurant, and office space, a Regal 14-screen Regal Cineplex, and Club Nokia, a 2,200 capacity live music venue.

The LA Live complex will also feature a 54-story, 1,000-room convention headquarters hotel, combining the JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton brands, as well as 216 luxury condominiums at The Residences at The Ritz Carlton.

When it comes time for red carpet Hollywood award shows, the craftsmanship of our union members also be on display. The Nokia Theater will be seen by millions when the venue plays host to numerous award ceremonies including the American Music Awards, which will be broadcast live Nov. 18 on ABC and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and the Latin Grammys, and ESPN’s ESPY Awards.

"Only in LA could you build something like the Nokia Theater," said Kurt Schindler, a principal with Berkeley-based ELS Architecture and Urban Design, designers of the project. He said Los Angeles is "the capitol for motion pictures and television and sports award shows," and that Nokia was designed with high profile awards shows in mind.

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"One of the prime [project] drivers was that the orchestra-level have 4,000 seats," said Schindler. He added that this allows nominees and their entourage to sit together in the orchestra section, so that if called they could all approach the stage together.

When winners hit the stage, they will stand on a 180-ft-wide by 80-ft-deep slab of concrete, topped with a layer of plywood and Plyron. According to Schindler the Nokia stage will be the largest in the country, surpassing the 66-ft- deep by 144-ft-wide stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Above the stage, 1,700 tons of structural steel is going in the roof to support a myriad of rigging, catwalks and cranes for quick set changes and lighting during live shows.

"Most of the difficulties [associated] with the stage is all of the rigging components," said Ryan McKenzie, project manager with Bethesda, Maryland-based Clark Construction Group, the project’s general contractor. "There are a lot of removable structures and an inordinate amount of structural steel above."

Construction on Nokia Theater broke ground in November of 2005 and work is scheduled for completion Oct. 12.

The building will have consumed 25,000 cubic yards of concrete and 8 million pounds of rebar by the time it is completed.