NASCAR Hall of Fame

In 2005 NASCAR issued a request for proposals to candidate cities to host its new Hall of Fame. Charlotte, North Carolina, was selected in March 2006. The New York firms Pei Cobb Freed & Partners (architecture) and Ralph Appelbaum Associates (exhibits) joined the city's competition team and developed the winning design.

To establish a local presence, Pei Cobb Freed relied on two Charlotte firms: Little, associate architect for the Hall of Fame, ballroom and parking, also handled permitting, while Tobin Dudley served as the firm's full-time representative on site. Construction began in May 2007, and the Hall of Fame opened in 2010.

Pei Cobb Freed designed the complex; Yvonne Szeto was lead designer. The shapes are curved and sloping, a reference to the winding track and to the notion of speed. The outer wall, curved and sloping, wraps the building and continues as a free-spanning ribbon, which twists over the main entry to make a canopy. Long, narrow slits cut through the metal skin suggest the blur of a car flashing past a spectator. A stainless steel band 44 feet (about 13 m) high encompasses the building.

The Great Hall is a glazed oval, the symbolic heart of the Hall of Fame and the visitors' main entrance. Inside, a curved, banked ramp climbs from the main floor to the exhibit levels, with race cars displayed on it as if frozen mid-race. Pedestrian bridges connect the complex to the existing convention center.

The complex comprises the 175,000-square-foot (about 16,300 m²) Hall of Fame and museum, a 100,000-square-foot (about 9,300 m²) ballroom, a 1,000-space parking garage and a privately owned office tower. LS3P, another Charlotte firm, drew up the tower's construction documents from Pei Cobb Freed's design.

The office tower sits on the northern edge of the site, turned towards the bustle of downtown. To the south, a plaza forms the forecourt of the Hall of Fame, livened by a broadcast studio used by NASCAR's media partners for radio and television.

The Hall of Fame, the ballroom and the parking garage belong to the City of Charlotte. Besides the Great Hall and the exhibit spaces, the museum includes the Hall of Honor.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame stands at the corner of Caldwell and Stonewall streets in Charlotte. It opens Wednesday to Monday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; on Tuesdays it is kept for private groups. The museum sells its tickets on its website.