Target Center Lounges

The Minnesota Timberwolves approached us to turn underutilized space into two distinct but related lounges. Working with a tight footprint, the sophisticated lounges were conceived as game-night retreats and special occasion spaces – one for use by the ownership team and one for the player’s families. The entire project team was challenged to design and build a complex, premium renovation in a narrow 5-month window. Both spaces emphasize the community formed when people gather at a table.

The family lounge and adjacent children’s area are separated by a one-way mirror set within a surrounding oak millwork portal. On one side, player’s families gather. On the other, nannies and children romp within view of their parents. A custom oak high-top table sits atop a plaid mosaic-marble floor at the center of the Family Lounge where the players’ partners gather to get acquainted, watch their children, and celebrate together. A highlighted grid of beams in the ceiling mimics the mosaic floor detailing. The walls surrounding the dining area are clad in charcoal painted oak paneling.

From here, the lounge branches in two directions to provide a mother’s room and a cozy built-in banquet. Both narrow wings have intimate lounge vignettes and terminate at the existing glass-block window, a rare feature in an arena. The Family lounge uses tilework and channeled wood to add texture, while the children’s area focuses on patterns of playful shapes in the wallpaper and rug.

Just across the hall, the Owner’s Lounge provides a court-level sanctuary for team owners and their closest circle of VIPs. A dark, subdued palette cued by the subterranean space of the lower arena is rich with deep neutrals and abundant textures. The self-referential space was isolated from meaningful architectural features, liberating the team to create a true escape from the kinetic activity circling the event floor.

The lounge is structured by a matrix of fumed sapele millwork that includes wall-cladding, cabinetry, pilasters, beams and a banquette surround. The heart of the space is a custom seven-foot diameter dining table in coordinating fumed sapele, with a matching bespoke lazy-susan. A curved alcove houses the table and adjacent velvet banquette seating is surrounded by vertical leather channels from Spinneybeck. Custom leather back-panels, bronze shelving standards and inlays, smoked glass, and curved coffers of dark espresso Ultrasuede are housed within the woodwork. Subwoofers, cell-phone charging, and AV controls are also concealed within the pilasters. Between them, floating Ultrasuede walls conceal accent lighting and carry extra large 160” video screens that allow guests to watch the game from within the lounge.

Honed black marble flooring grounds the space with an inset carpet, consoles and bronze table lamps. Polished white quartzite panels fold out from the wall to become knife-edged counters at both the bar and buffet, concealing storage and induction warmers. The bar area features custom illuminated floating shelves with matching bronze cladding and sapele panel-clad undercounter appliances.

The owner identified gathering around a table as a professional, cultural, and social point of focus for their team, so the dissonance in our framework occurs at these moments. While these two lounges serve very different clientele, both spaces are extremely sophisticated and well-designed to offer the best game day experience for any ownership group and player’s families in all of the NBA.