Assignment

Alliiance was leading the renovation of Target Center – the home of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The focus of our team was the new exterior of the building, the new lobby, and the re-imagining of the Courtside Club.

The most significant move was to relocate the entrance and the ticketing lobby to the corner of the building. The new entrance was marked with a glass box volume, divided into a two-story public area and the atrium above, the latter being accessible only to the fans.

The Lexus Club relocated to the old ticketing lobby. It received a sculptural wooden ceiling that folds down to become a privacy barrier and copper curtains to subdivide the large space into smaller, more inviting areas. The material palette throughout the space is rich and warm, speaking both to the sense of place and the premium nature of the club.

My Role

This was among the first projects in my professional career. I was exposed to all design stages, from SD to CA. On Target Center Renovation, I earned the required AXP hours for my licensing. The project elevated me from a student to a professional architect.

This was also the first project where we began using visualization as a design tool. Visualization was used extensively to test and inform the major design decisions and design updates. Target Center Renovation helped me to transition Alliiance from Kerkythea to V-Ray and cut rendering times five-fold while improving the overall quality of images.

The two areas where I contributed most are Lexus Club and Lobby spaces (images below). While collecting fan photos for the renderings, Target Center security took interest in me and we had a riveting conversation. This taught me a valuable lesson of always calling in advance before taking any photos and always having business cards on me.

We used design models extensively at the beginning of our design process. I was tasked with creating, maintaining, and updating such models.