AT&T Center

Inspired by the outdoor fiestas and culture of South Texas, the scale of this 18,700-seat sports arena for the NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs was reduced through a series of tall porches, generous loggias and broad overhangs. Circulation was pulled to the outside, culminating in corner stairs wrapped in perforated-metal, sun-screened silos.

Between the arena and the adjacent coliseum, cables holding sheet-metal panels are strung as a sombrilla to shade the backyard plaza, an idea borrowed from local cattle yards.