The 5 best places to be — architecturally speaking — at SoFi Stadium

If a stadium opens without crowds in the middle of a pandemic, does it make a sound?

Consider the curious case of SoFi Stadium. Inglewood’s $5 billion football stadium hosted its first game in September of 2020 — Rams vs. Cowboys; Rams won — without any fans in the stands due to the ravages of COVID-19. Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke was at that first game and described the event as “strange and somber.”

With the advent of vaccines, SoFi Stadium began allowing fans into the stadium last spring. But Super Bowl LVI next month, with an expected global viewership of more than 145 million, will in many regards mark the venue’s true debut.

And what a debut it will be. The 3.1-million-square-foot stadium has plenty of superlatives attached to it. It’s the largest stadium in the NFL. It’s the league’s first indoor-outdoor stadium. And the stands’ steep vertical pitch allows fans to get startlingly close to the action. Hell, if you bathe in money and can afford one of the field cabanas, you could very well have a defensive lineman land in your beer.

A view of SoFi Stadium from one of the field cabanas — the closest anyone can get to the field at any NFL stadium.

(Vantage Point Global Inc. / SoFi Stadium)

The stadium’s design is unique. Tucked into the Earth so as not to interfere with the flight path of aircraft at nearby LAX, its scale, on approach, feels more intimate than a venue that seats 70,000. Moreover, its curling roof — which protects not only the field but an adjacent plaza and the 6,000-seat YouTube Theater — is fritted and allows light to penetrate even as it offers protection from the sun.

Gone are dreary passageways of the stadiums of yore lined with concessions. Here, open concourses allow spectators to pick up a hot dog while they keep an eye on the game. Everywhere, gardens embrace and surround the public areas. Adjacent to the site is the attractive Lake Park.

SoFi comes courtesy of a team of more than eight dozen architects and designers led by Lance Evans of HKS, a global architectural firm with offices in Los Angeles. The stadium’s landscape design was led by Mia Lehrer, of the L.A.-based Studio-MLA.

Tucked into the design are all kinds of great spots for catching the views or simply hanging out. Here are five of the best: