If they can do a nice museum, they must be able to do a good sports arena, right? Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta, the innovative folks who were chosen by the SFMOMA board to take on their massive expansion that starts construction next year, have been selected by the Golden State Warriors to be the designers of their upcoming San Francisco arena at Piers 30-32. The 13-acre site, just south of the Bay Bridge, is some prime waterfront real estate, and Snøhetta's Craig Dykers says he's excited to be doing another big project on a site like the one on which their much praised Oslo Opera House sits. "It's rooted in our experience to be persnickety about waterfronts," he says.

John King shared the news in Sunday's Chron, adding that local firm AECOM, who are sports-facility specialists, will be part of the team as well.

In addition to the Oslo Opera House, Snøhetta was selected in 2004 to design the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion, which is the only building that sits on the memorial grounds next to the two water-filled footprints of the former World Trade Center towers. Since then they've been raking in the American dollars and landing a number of high-profile commissions, including the SFMOMA project.

The Warriors announced in May that they'd be making the hop across the Bay and building a privately financed 17,000- to 19,000-seat arena on the waterfront.

Look for some renderings to appear in the coming months, but there's no sense of what the design will look like just yet.

[Chron]