Thinking Big, But Winding Up At The Same Boring Place

When the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League set out to build their new stadium, they went outside the usual parameters, hiring former “bad boy” architect Peter Eisenmann to take charge of the design and create a modern structure unlike anything else in the NFL. But somewhere between concept and execution, much of Eisenmann’s personality got lost amid the budget constraints. “The typical stadium designer today is a corporate servant who churns out formulaic structures, either crudely serviceable or slathered in nostalgic references to the Roman Colosseum. By contrast, Eisenman is an architect who sometimes gets trapped in his own head: he is known for conceptual references that, while playful, can border on the impenetrable.”