The Kroenke Sports and Entertainment company has broken ground on the new HKS-designed Los Angeles Stadium at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, which will be the new home of National Football League (NFL) franchise the LA Rams.

Sized at nearly 3 million sq ft (278,700sq m), multipurpose venue is set to be the largest in the NFL when it opens in 2019. It will include 70,000 fixed seats, with the flexibility to expand to host more than 100,000 fans, and has already been named as the host stadium for Super Bowl LV in 2021. The cost of the stadium has previously been estimated at US$1.86bn (€1.7bn, £1.5bn).

A perforated, permeable metal ‘skin’ will wrap the venue to create an open-air canopy. This curving roof will cover more than the stadium itself, including outdoor ‘rooms’ and plaza spaces designed to blur the distinction between indoor and outdoor environments. A lightweight, transparent Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) membrane will be used on part of the roof to add to the feeling of being in an open-air environment.

“The regional climate and cultural DNA of Southern California and Los Angeles are the foundation of our design,” said HKS principal Mark A. Williams. “We have crafted a design that is responsive to its site, the community and the global stage of sports and entertainment. We believe this project represents a very important piece of architecture for Southern California and will broaden the fan experience in sports and entertainment venues.

“From day one, Rams’ owner Stan Kroenke talked to us about his vision to elevate the fan experience. He challenged us to create a venue unlike any other in sports that celebrated the NFL’s return to Los Angeles.”

The LA Stadium – located close to the city’s international airport – will feature a hotel, retail space, a possible branch of the NFL Hall of Fame and a man-made lake, meaning it can be used extensively on non-game days.

The construction management joint venture of Turner/AECOM will lead the project’s construction.

In January 2016 the NFL franchise – formerly known as the St Louis Rams – was granted NFL permission to relocate from Missouri to LA, its home in the years before 1995.