07/29/99

Dallas took a first peek Wednesday at a model of its new sports arena, a brick-and-glass structure that designers said takes styling cues from the city's historic West End and other traditional architecture.

"We wanted a classic, beautiful building that people will love," said arena developer Ross Perot Jr., lead owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. "That's what we believe we have with this building."

Washington, D.C., architect David Schwarz, who led a team that designed the building, said during a news conference that he aimed to please sports fans and others who will use American Airlines Center.

"What we try to do is create a style of architecture in which everyone can find something they recognize," said Mr. Schwarz, who designed The Ballpark in Arlington and Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth.

The arena, set for completion in fall 2001, will seat 18,000 for hockey, 19,200 for basketball and 20,000 for concerts. It will include 1,600 club seats, 144 luxury suites, restaurants and a private club.

The building also will include a locker room for women. Mr. Perot said he anticipates that a Women's National Basketball Association team will make American Airlines Center its home.

The arena is being built on a 12-acre tract east of Stemmons Freeway and north of the West End and Woodall Rodgers Freeway. Mr. Perot and Dallas Stars hockey team owner Tom Hicks are planning to develop the surrounding 50 acres with hotels, stores, office towers and apartments.

Mr. Hicks and Mr. Perot said they plan to kick off the office development with two buildings south of the arena. One building will house corporate offices of the Mavericks and Mr. Perot's Hillwood Development Corp.; the other will be home to the Stars and the buyout firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst.

The Arena Group plans to spend up to $325 million on the arena and nearby roads, a price tag nearly $100 million higher than expected last year.

"We rolled a lot of good ideas into this building, and that's why the cost continues to go up," Mr. Perot said.

Mr. Perot owns a 54 percent share of the Mavericks. At least seven minority partners, including the Belo Corp., which publishes The Dallas Morning News, collectively own the rest.

The city of Dallas is contributing $125 million to the arena's construction, plus $12.5 million to extend Houston Street from the West End to the arena site. A contract between the city and the Arena Group caps the public's contribution.

Mayor Ron Kirk, who led a campaign that narrowly won voter approval last year of higher hotel and car-rental taxes to pay the city's share of construction, said he liked the model's traditional style.

"They at least were trying to design a building that builds on the spirit of the West End," he said. "A steel-and-glass structure, at least to me, would have been out of place. This is a comfortable building. It's a handsome building."

When Mr. Perot and Mr. Hicks hired Mr. Schwarz last year, some local architects criticized the choice. They said the arena developers had reneged on their promise to build a progressive, bold structure for the 21^st century.

Mr. Schwarz, whose buildings tend to mesh a variety of classic and traditional architectural features, said he anticipated that design critics who favor modern styles wouldn't like American Airlines Center.

"The most important thing is for people to love the building," he said. "It's not being designed for a series of architects or critics."

A tabletop arena model and renderings unveiled Wednesday show a rectangular building punctuated on all sides by a large arch. The exterior features reddish-brown brick and limestone accents, similar to The Ballpark in Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers.

Mr. Schwarz, who worked with Dallas-based HKS Architects, said the arena's concourses would be unique among arenas. The main-level concourse will feature a large room at each entryway, with those spaces connected by hallways.

"In most arenas, you have racetrack concourses where you never know where you are," he said. "This is going for a series of distinct rooms."

The building's corners will feature restaurants and stores. One will be reserved for an American Airlines members-only Admiral's Club. Concession areas will line each of the concourse levels.

Mr. Schwarz said the arena's interior will shine during the day with natural light. Concourses will offer views of the Dallas skyline to the south, he said.

The arena will encompass about 815,000 square feet, roughly the size of eight Home Depot stores combined. That's about 10 percent bigger than preliminary plans had projected.

American Airlines is paying $195 million over 30 years for the arena naming rights and marketing deals with the teams. The arena model showed American's logo atop an arch on all sides of the building. One drawing showed models of American planes suspended from a concourse roof.

Donald Carty, American's chairman and CEO, said American would enjoy huge advertising opportunities with the arena and the chance to show the company's commitment to the area.

"This is a watershed development of the proportions of D/FW Airport 25 years ago," he said.

Arena officials hope to hire a builder within days or weeks. Construction is scheduled to get under way this summer.