In Architecture school, I was introduced to many famous “starchitects” and their fantastical designs. Unlike years ago, when crumpled paper and mullets were in fashion, now it’s all about primitive solids. You have cubes, stacked cubes, spheres on a cube, box with holes, and testaments to these divine shapes, three holy cubes.
Like when a scribble is at the MoMA, the “artistry” of these buildings can be confusing. Why do you need a starchitect to design something that is a default shape in 3D programs?
Maybe you don’t. Because father made billionaire, NY Knicks owner, and cringe-pop super star James Dolan did his best starchitect impression and drew a bunch of different shapes before settling on a circle (for those of you without architecture training, a sphere is a circle from the side *jk). Simply add 2.3 billion dollars and you get the glorious insanity that is The Sphere.
Hey Bro, I heard you like spheres. So we put a sphere in a sphere, on a sphere where you can watch a movie about the sphere
The Sphere is the perfect venue for Las Vegas. Las Vegas bought into giant primitive shapes before it was cool. But unlike other primitive shaped buildings, the Sphere has a singular thesis inside and out. On the outside, it’s a LED ball. On the inside, it’s a LED ball (with seats). Of course there’s all the usual stadium amenities like bathrooms, escalators, and over priced food and drinks; But the main event is the same on the outside as it is on the inside.
Movie theaters are less appealing now that you can have a big screen at home. Even at an IMAX theater, it’s just a bigger rectangle. However, the spherical screen covers most of the viewer’s peripheral vision, giving an extra sense of dimensionality. Combined with spatial audio and vibrating seats, it creates a more “immersive experience”. It’s like having 18 thousand people sit together in the Jurassic park pod.
The most epic fishbowl
The movie (Postcard from Earth) I went to see was shot on a fisheye camera built for the Sphere. It creates an intense fishbowl effect that reminded me of this Disney “Honey I shrunk the kids” ride at Epcot my parents took me to. Where in traditional shots the composition directs the eye, the fishbowl moves the audience through the environment. You feel embedded into the scene. “Postcard from Earth” was amazing for a vanilla pseudo-sci-fi nature documentary. I can only imagine what creative things filmmakers will do as the format becomes more popular.
I love the Sphere. It’s an amazing combination of grand iconic architecture, otherworldly audience experience, and it is what it is design. Poetically, all of this is brought to reality by a rich spoiled well hated rich man child. To bastardize a quote from Steve Jobs… “The people who are crazy and rich enough to build a giant LED sphere, are the ones who do.”