The Sacremento Kings of the National Basketball Association have made the transition from Sleep Train Arena to Golden 1 Center, a brand new multi-purpose venue spanning four city blocks in the downtown core. As fans pour through the space and grow accustomed to the state-of-the-art facility, an enlightening time-lapse video produced by EarthCam showcases the hard work that it took to get to this point.

The video captures exterior and interior construction from August 2014 to October 2016, relying on a number of multimedia technologies to chronicle the 26-month march towards completion. In addition to time-lapse webcams and live-streaming video, EarthCam's billion pixel panorama system, the GigapixelCam, was fittingly employed. "EarthCam has put us in position to give fans an all-access look at Golden 1 Center, from site demolition to arena ribbon cutting," said Andrew Nicholson, senior director of digital & integrated communications for the Sacramento Kings. "As we usher in a new era of Kings basketball and world-class events in Sacramento, we're thrilled to share a comprehensive time-lapse of the historic project."

Assembling the enormous scoreboard, image courtesy of EarthCam

Sporting facilities tend to act as cultural hubs, boosting the economic and social capital of the immediate area around them. Golden 1 Center will be no different. The new venue is expected to attract investment and spur development, and the project already has a head start. On top of the facility itself — an ideal setting for professional and collegiate sports, concerts, ice shows, indoor rodeo, trade shows, large graduations, and family shows — the development also includes 1.5 million square feet of mixed-use development. When fully built, the area will see an injection of 475,000 square feet of office space, 350,000 square feet of retail, a 250-room hotel, and up to 500,000 square feet of residential use. The hotel and the majority of the retail are being built under the first phase, with most of the office and residential space coming in the next stage.

An aerial view of the finished venue, image courtesy of EarthCam

Golden 1 Center has a capacity of 17,500 for basketball games and boasts an AECOM-led design with a recycled and perforated aluminum and glass facade. This etched skin depicts abstract images of leaves and trees to reflect Sacremento's "City of Trees" nickname. An adjacent public plaza embodies the region's agricultural and recreational assets, with tomatoes in hydroponic gardens, a grassy amphitheatre, and a "bosque" seating area marked by a range of tree species. Fully powered by solar energy, with five massive hangar doors providing natural cooling, Golden 1 Center is the first indoor sports venue in the world to attain LEED Platinum designation.

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