Intuit Dome Symbolizes the New Standard for Arena Design and Engineering

The new Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, is more than a basket­ball arena to the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, it is the team’s home away from home. The visually striking 1.1 million-square-foot arena used exclusively for basketball and concerts opened in August 2024 and is the new benchmark for global arena design and engineering. 

Intuit Dome’s oblong shape is due to the Clippers’ desire to have an all-encompassing facility—the arena’s seating bowl and basket­ball court, administrative offices, practice and training facilities as well as the critical infrastructure to ensure the arena is carbon-neutral are all located within the structure’s footprint. 

The LEED Platinum structure is completely powered by 2 MW of photovoltaic solar panels on the roof that provide 11 MW of power to batteries and related equipment housed in a central utility plant inside the structure. There is enough on-site energy storage to power a basketball game or con­cert while generating no new greenhouse gas emissions. 

Because Intuit Dome is designed to exclu­sively host basketball games and concerts, it provides an intimate seating bowl for more than 18,000 fans and positions them up to 45 feet closer to the action on the court or the stage compared to traditional multi-use—i.e., hockey included—arena design. 

Intuit Dome has eight distinct levels: two below grade, five levels above grade, and the main concourse at grade. The arena event level is founded at 32 feet below natural grade, and the top of the shell structure is 121 feet above natural grade. 

In total, Intuit Dome is approximately 1,250,000 gross square feet and includes 965,000 square feet of elevated floor structure as well as 277,000 square feet of roof shell surface area, much larger than the typical arenas previously constructed. 

Three primary structural construction typologies were instituted for the Intuit Dome—concrete substructure, steel super­structure, and the steel shell. 

The concrete substructure contains the cast-in-place structure and shallow and mat foundations at or below grade. This includes the arena’s foundations, perimeter retaining walls, the slab on grade Event Level, and Club and Plaza Level elevated slabs. The east side of the Plaza Level includes concrete slab over steel deck supported by steel trusses in the loading dock area. The lower bowl also utilizes precast concrete seating units sup­ported by steel framing. 

The steel superstructure contains the structural steel elevated floor framing above the Plaza Level, which is supported by the concrete substructure below. The Suite, Mezzanine, Mechanical, and Terrace Levels are supported by composite concrete over steel decks slabs with steel beams and columns. 

Additionally, steel rakers sup­port precast concrete seating while the concession areas and electrical control rooms have bare steel deck roofs and are supported on top of the Terrace Level. The conces­sion areas are steel frame structures comprised of wide flange beams, HSS columns, and cold formed steel shear walls as the seismic force resisting system. 

Finally, the shell structure contains both the typical bare steel deck roof over the top of the arena and a polytetrafluoroethylene and eth­ylene tetrafluoroethylene (PTFE/ETFE) shell enveloping the rest of the roof and wraps around the structure on all sides. The shell structure utilizes circular hollow structural steel members in a diagrid shell—formed from a series of diamond-shaped panels that reflect the geometry of a basketball net—to support the build­ing enclosure made up of PTFE or ETFE membranes. The shell structure is vertically supported by traditional columns and “tree columns” with horizontal outriggers at the Suite and Terrace Levels. A 12-in. vertical gap was provided between the Plaza Level and the bottom of the shell and is not base supported at any location. It is supported laterally at the gutter—the interface between the arena’s traditional roof and diagrid shell—as well as at the Terrace Level (radial only) and Suite Level (radial only) utilizing toggle braces.

Intuit Dome’s PTFE/ETFE roof shell rides along with the structure; however, it is not the primary structural seismic system. The 2,800-ton diagrid shell frame roof is supported by seven trusses over the main arena weighing approximately 120 tons apiece and is comparable to a “hoopskirt” where it is rigid in its own way but then tied back to each successive floor with a toggle brace. 

Because Intuit Dome is located approximately a mile from the Newport-Inglewood fault, the toggle braces can rotate in two direc­tions in case of a seismic event. The toggle braces allow the shell to be laterally supported by primary structural floors at Levels 4 and 7 so the shell frame roof does not cantilever over 100 feet. However, because the toggle braces can rotate using universal pins, the shell can move freely during a seismic event and not experience high loads due to drift compatibility that would otherwise rip apart the shell. In this way, the roof shell acts as a façade element and not a primary structural element. 

Additionally, the PTFE/ETFE diagrid roof shell that makes up the exterior of the arena covers the entire structure. The decision to use both PTFE and ETFE ensured the material could stretch over multiple panels because the diagrid roof shell has several different configurations. The dual roof material is watertight in the critical sections of the structure and a woven mesh in other areas to allow ample natural light and airflow, while also providing a horizontal and vertical decorative aspect. 

One unique aspect of the roof is how it is used—or not used— over Intuit Dome’s indoor-outdoor lobby. The partially covered lobby, which includes the main entry and ticketing areas, measures 25,000-square feet and reaches 115 feet upward to the roof shell. The indoor-outdoor lobby is unique in that most venues have lobbies that are completely enclosed or completely outside. Different sections and portions of the roof are open to allow light and air in to provide the aesthetic design qualities required by the Clippers. The roof is waterproof over the court, seating bowl, upper concourse, and one bay beyond the concession buildings at Level 7. Beyond the enclosure line, the shell acts as a shading and architectural element. 

The lobby’s indoor/outdoor nature allows the structure to use the Southern California climate for natural heating and cooling. There is no need to heat or cool a massive volume unnecessarily, resulting in a much more sustainable approach to traditional arena heating and cooling.