Building San Francisco's Waterfront Arena

SAN FRANCISCO's Chase Center - a waterfront sports arena and events venue - will open today with a joint concert by Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony.

The first basketball game will be played in early October.

The USD $1.4 billion project was privately funded without any municipal, state or federal support.

The new facility also means that the city's NBA team, the Golden State Warriors, could move back to the city after having played in Oakland since 1971.

Above: Chase Center is located on San Francisco's waterfront (image courtesy of Chase Center).

Originally announced in 2012, the arena was planned to be built closer to the San Francisco-Oakland Bridge, but local residents raised concerns about the impact on the liveability of the area, as there is already a major baseball venue in the neighbourhood.

In 2014, a new plot of land on the waterfront, further south in the Mission Bay neighbourhood, was secured and construction began in January 2017.

Above: The arena seats 18,064 spectators (image courtesy of Chase Center).

Designed by sports and entertainment venue specialist MANICA Architecture, the Chase Center has a capacity for 18,064 spectators, 100,000 square feet (9,300 square metres) of retail and hospitality spaces and viewing deck with panoramic vistas of San Francisco bay.

Above: The building's light coloured roof will help it decrease urban heat island effect (image courtesy of Chase Center).

Featuring a light-coloured roofing material intended to reduce the building's contribution to the urban island heat effect, stormwater collection and re-use systems, efficient lighting fixtures and with the operator's intention to use renewable energy, the Chase Center is set to be awarded a LEED Gold Certificate.