Archinect - News

Populous' new Riyadh soccer stadium symbolizes a germinating seed emerging from the earth

2024-11-19T14:19:00-05:00

A new stadium design from Populous for what will become one of the world’s largest sporting venues, the future King Salman Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has been unveiled ahead of the country’s turn as host of the 2034 FIFA World Cup.

Fans will have to wait until 2029 to see the full vision for the stadium and master plan realized. When it does come to fruition, the stadium design, which is to be located in one of the city’s northern precincts, will be approximately square feet and have a capacity for 92,000 people. An adjacent area with separate athletics facilities will join alongside it in the master plan, pollinating the spaces next to King Abdulaziz Park as though germinating seeds meant to represent the growth of sports within the country.

Image courtesy of Populous

Amenities inside the stadium include a Royal Box, hospitality skyboxes and lounges, 300 'VVIP' seats, and 2,200 VIP seats, plus an array of internal screens, indoor gardens, and a rooftop walking path that offers...

Major League Baseball says damaged Tropicana Field won’t be playable until 2026

2024-11-17T08:00:00-05:00

A new roof would be the largest expense, according to the report, accounting for about $23.6 million, but the report states that “the primary structure is serviceable and capable of supporting a replacement tension membrane fabric roof.” Based on the preliminary timeline in the report, it would take a little less than 13 months from the start of construction until “final completion,” with the repairs wrapping up just before a projected Opening Day in late March of 2026.

The cost of repairs has been stated at $55.7 million. The Rays will play their home games in Tampa at George M. Steinbrenner Field (the Yankees’ Spring Training home since 1996) while repair work continues. The vexing financial fiasco is further complicated as the franchise is set to expand into new digs anyway by the start of the 2028 baseball season. Winds in excess of 125 mph removed 18 of the stadium's 24 fiberglass roof panels during Hurricane Milton back in October.

Trahan Architects adds 25 years and a slate of new improvements to New Orleans' historic Superdome

2024-11-06T15:29:00-05:00

With the upcoming 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on the horizon for 2025, the new interior renovations by Trahan Architects to one of its tragic epicenters—the historic Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana—is an important project to highlight following the completion of work in September of this year.

The extension of an initial engagement, which began in the immediate aftermath of the storm, the latest commission authored a full interior renovation meant to improve accessibility, the fan experience, wayfinding, operational efficiency, and the team facilities for the city’s beloved New Orleans Saints NFL franchise.

Image © Tim Hursley

The project, which was carried out in phases from 2020 on until the start of this year's football season, reconfigures perimeter concessions areas while installing a series of new atrium volumes that ease the speed of access to upper-level guest suites.

Image © Tim Hursley

"The ingenuity of the original design enabled us to think beyond ...

Northwestern University’s Ryan Field stadium breaks ground

2024-08-07T18:02:00-04:00

Northwestern University’s athletics tradition is getting a new crown jewel thanks to HNTB and Perkins&Will’s design for the new Ryan Field Redevelopment project. Work on the venue, which promises to be "most accessible in college football," commenced with a groundbreaking ceremony early last month in Evanston, Illinois, and will yield a total of 35,000 seats plus outdoor plaza areas after an investment of $800 million. Existing ADA requirements will be "doubled," according to HNTB's project page.

Turner Construction is spearheading its construction and expects the stadium to be ready in time for the start of the 2026 season. Thornton Tomasetti is providing structural design and construction engineering services for the redevelopment, which is targeting a LEED Gold certification.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by HNTBCorp (@hntbcorp)

Populous to design AS Roma's new stadium for 2027

2024-08-05T12:16:00-04:00

The next big draw soccer venue from Populous has been announced for the AS Roma franchise. The design that replaces the 71-year-old Stadio Olimpico will include an upgraded Curva Sud (or curved ultra fan seating area) element considered to be the largest in any professional European football facility among its 60,000 seats and be completed in time for the club’s 100th anniversary in 2027. Plans are for the stadium to take up an elevated site in the northeastern Pietralata neighborhood.

Populous Vice President Ryan Friedkin joined the city's mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, in sharing his excitement for the project, saying it would "also be a landmark for all the citizens of Rome."

Image courtesy Populous

Also in Serie A, the firm is designing the new home for Inter Milan ahead of its move from San Siro Stadium to Rozzano. Populous entered the top 10 grossing firms globally last year to lead the industry's embrace of the sports facilities market with some $390.4 million in reported revenue...

Montrealers ask: What to do with the Olympic Stadium?

2024-03-28T13:45:00-04:00

But nostalgia rarely makes for good decision making. Keep the tower and repurpose it as a tourist destination. With the money saved, we can erect a better stadium serving the city’s current and future needs. Not all landmarks are sacred. When fire consumed the Notre-Dame cathedral, they raced to replace the roof; Montreal’s Olympic Stadium is not Notre-Dame.

Quebecers face a vexing choice: Keep the stadium or pursue an even costlier demolition that would erase the landmark, which late architect Roger Taillibert called a “poem in concrete,” owing to its location over two underground metro stations. The new, $870 million replacement roof that is being made transparent to let in natural light for the first time won't be completed by 2028. (The original Kevlar roof partially collapsed in 1999 and has suffered several smaller tears since being constructed in the late-1980s.)

Montreal has been floated as a potential location for a new MLB expansion franchise for the past few years. Our preview of the new BIG and HNTB-designed home of the relocating Oakland A's franchise in Las Vegas (another city that was on the league's expansion list) can be found here.

Gensler and Gilbane will revamp M&T Bank Stadium for the Baltimore Ravens

2023-12-18T13:27:00-05:00

Gensler and Gilbane Building Company have announced the design for a major renovation of the 25-year-old M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. The home of the Baltimore Ravens NFL franchise is set to undergo a list of stadium enhancements that will bring the fan experience in line with other professional sports entities, including the addition of social spaces, club experiences, dining, and expansion of its concourse and plaza areas near Camden Yards.

Three new membership clubs will be delivered at the field level on the west, north, and south corners of the stadium, with another suite area added above the West End Zone Club by 2025.

Image: © Baltimore Ravens Photos

Other upgrades include an upper-level concourse expansion that will add an additional 12,000 square feet of space in three locations, the construction of a new two-level “Baltimore Style” fan area called the Gatehouse totaling 5,000 square feet, and enhancements to the North and South plazas to c...

HOK enlisted by Jacksonville Jaguars to reimagine stadium

2023-06-08T13:05:00-04:00

HOK has announced that it is partnering with the Jacksonville Jaguars to undertake the renovation of TIAA Bank Field into the “Stadium of the Future.” The transformation seeks to invigorate the Jaguars franchise and spur the development of the city of Jacksonville.

Rendering courtesy of HOK

Work towards a long-term stadium solution began in July 2020 with a thorough engineering assessment of the current stadium. It was concluded that it was possible to address the stadium’s challenges through a renovation rather than new construction.

“From stadium discussions starting in 2016 to the formal process launched in July 2020 and now concluding, our objective has always been the same — lock in a promising future for the Jaguars and help our downtown become an economic engine to lift all of Jacksonville, particularly areas that have been underserved,” said Jaguars owner Shad Khan.

Rendering courtesy of HOK

HOK is joined by Impact Development and Management as the owner’s representative, al...

'Catalysts of inclusion': Populous' stadium expert Silvia Prandelli details innovations in inclusive design

2023-05-12T13:45:00-04:00

With several high-profile projects, including the planned Etihad Stadium expansion and the $1 billion Eleven Park in Indianapolis, on its horizon, Populous senior principal Silvia Prandelli sat down with The Athletic recently to detail the firm’s approach to stadium design in an era that is more welcoming to numerous groups — women, families, wheelchair users, and more — left out by traditional approaches to the typology.

Prandelli was the architect for both the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the 2012 London Olympic Stadium projects. She spoke about several concepts the firm is applying to their designs while navigating a host of regulations from national governments and European professional soccer’s governing body UEFA. The solutions mentioned include increased pram storage and gender-neutral bathrooms together among other interventions considered foreign to the sport sector before the last decade.

Populous' TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, which won the top prize at last year's World Fo...

Populous unveils $1 billion Eleven Park stadium design for Indianapolis

2023-02-20T12:45:00-05:00

Populous has revealed designs for its new 20,000-seat multipurpose soccer stadium in Indianapolis.

Their design for the city’s Indy Eleven professional soccer franchise will anchor a larger mixed-use development located at the southwesternmost corner of downtown that includes apartments, a hotel feature, office spaces, and retail all wrapped in a color-changing LED facade that’s supposedly reflective of the “forward-looking nature of the development.”

Populous’ Phil Kolbo shared, “A world-class stadium is designed as a true destination, a reflection of its community and a catalyst for growth in the area. This is our mission with the new stadium for Indy Eleven.”

Image courtesy Indy Eleven and Keystone Group

“Eleven Park will not only change the skyline of Indianapolis, but will add over a thousand jobs, have a huge economic impact, create quality of life benefits and attract talent and opportunities to our city and state,” added Ersal Ozdemir, the Chairman and Founder of Keystone Gr...

Super Bowl LVI will light up Studio-MLA’s award-winning Hollywood Park design

2022-01-12T15:22:00-05:00

The eyes of the sports world will soon be on Studio-MLA’s award-winning landscape design as it takes center stage during SoFi Stadium’s turn as host of the 56th Super Bowl in Los Angeles next month.

Around 100 million viewers are expected to tune in to this year’s version of the big game, which takes place in the new multibillion-dollar behemoth designed by HKS. Perhaps the most significant feature of the massive 3.1-million-square-foot stadium complex is the 25-acre Hollywood Park that is coming to life all around it, allowing it to serve in a way that helps the overall development meet its mandate as a vital anchor for the community of Inglewood.

Image © Craig Collins 2021

The park is part of a much larger complex that will eventually take up close to 300 acres and feature two other flexible performance venues as well as a 5.5-acre artificial lake designed by the studio to collect and reuse 26 million gallons a year in water runoff from each facility. What was once an empty racetr...

Populous tapped to lead design of new combined Inter & AC Milan stadium

2021-12-23T17:12:00-05:00

Bookending another banner year in which it overhauled a living legend and inaugurated a Field of Dreams, Populous has been announced as the designer for the football clubs Internazionale Milano and AC Milan's combined new digs to be located in the city’s San Siro neighborhood.

Nicknamed “The Cathedral,” the new facility will replace the existing Stadio Giuseppe Meazza that has stood on the site since its completion in 1926.

Image courtesy Populous

The stadium will be the centerpiece of a pedestrian-friendly recreation district that features 110,000 square meters of green space in addition to a new underground parking facility. Populous says a finalized design will be unveiled at the conclusion of an accelerated second phase at the end of next year, and that it will stand as a celebration of some of the city’s most iconic architecture, including the famed Duomo and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.

Image courtesy Populous

“Our design envisages the stadium as the most sustainable in Europe an...

Populous and OverActive Media unveil updated plans for performance venue in Toronto

2021-11-03T11:46:00-04:00

Entertainment company and developer OverActive Media (OAM) has unveiled updated plans for their Populous-designed entertainment venue and hotel complex. OAM has secured lease terms approval from the Exhibition Place Board of Governors in Toronto, allowing for a final review and approval by the Toronto City Council later this year.

The $500 million project was first unveiled at the end of February. It will be located on a 4.5-acre site in the heart of the historic Exhibition Place, a publicly owned mixed-use district in Toronto. Along with general entertainment, such as concerts, the venue will host conventions, corporate events, awards shows, and serve as an esports arena. It will be the home for Toronto’s two professional esports teams, the Toronto Ultra of the Call of Duty League and Toronto Defiant of the Overwatch League, both owned by OAM.

The 7,000-seat venue will sit along the waterfront, offering open public space, along with views and pedestrian access. Its dynamic form wi...

EarthCam releases 4k time-lapse of LA's SoFi Stadium construction

2020-12-09T13:47:00-05:00

EarthCam has released a 4k time-lapse video of the HKS-designed SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The video took over 1400 days and four million images to document the construction process. The 3-minute time-lapse captures all 3.1 million square feet of the stadium. Check it out below.

Tech company to create 'digital twin' of new SoFi Stadium

2020-11-16T16:00:00-05:00

Digital twin provider Willow has announced a partnership with Hollywood Park to create a digital twin of a 300-acre sports and entertainment development, including SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

According to Construction Dive, Willow will create a virtual copy of the stadium by capturing data in and around the area that will be "used to provide analytics and insight into the experience of attending a game there. This data will help SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park facilities managers to identify potential problems, optimize sustainability and manage risk."

1.8 million-square-foot MANICA-designed Allegiant Stadium completes construction

2020-08-10T15:16:00-04:00

Construction on the $1.97 billion, 1.8 million-square-foot stadium wrapped July 30, and the certificate was awarded the following day. Construction on the stadium was not slowed or shut down by the coronavirus pandemic.

The stadium, designed by Kansas City-based firm MANICA Architecture, will be home to the Las Vegas Raiders and the University of Nevada. The project underwent a total of 31 months of construction and has recently received a Certificate of Occupancy, Construction Dive reports. A defining feature in the stadium's design is a large 3D-printed torch located at the north endzone. At 85 feet tall, it is reported to be the largest 3D-printed object in the world

3D-printed stadium created by FIU students helped Florida police prepare for the Super Bowl

2020-02-03T11:58:00-05:00

In preparation for yesterday's Super Bowl, the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) utilized a highly detailed 3D-printed model of the Hard Rock Stadium. The model was created by students at Florida International University's (FIU) College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts along with the school's Robotics and Digital Fabrication Lab.

Measuring 4' x 5', the model intricately shows the stadium's bleachers, hallways, exits, rooms, and even structural elements. It can be separated and reconfigured, allowing viewers to focus in on focal areas of interest. In total the printing took over 3,500 hours and was the result of months examining digital documentation of the stadium, walkthroughs, and calibration and programming of the printers.

“This was something unique, for FIU and MDPD, the creation of a physical model to use in training,” said Professor Shahin Vassigh, Director of the RDF Lab in a statement. “It’s not necessarily the scale that is unique – architects make models for d...

ZHA’s Eco Park stadium in England is finally moving forward

2019-12-30T11:15:00-05:00

An all-timber football stadium designed for the Forest Green Rovers Football Club by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) in 2016 has received local approval in Gloucestershire, England.

The all-wood stadium is designed to blend into the project’s rural site. Rendering courtesy of MIR / Zaha Hadid Architects.

The proposed stadium will anchor the new £100 million Eco Park development that will bring the 5,000-seat stadium, a community accessible football pitch, and a collection of offices and retail spaces to the area. The stadium component of the project is billed as the world’s first modern all-wood soccer stadium, while the project backers aim to make the development run entirely on sustainably generated energy.

A project statement on the ZHA website states, “The design retains and enhances the existing meadow landscape of the site whilst adding the stadium and other functions for the town. Embodying low carbon construction methods and operational processes, it will be the first all timber...

Climate change calls for a new stadium in Texas baseball

2019-10-04T11:01:00-04:00

A few years ago, the owners of the Rangers concluded that the sweat-inducing weather was depressing attendance, and decided to build $1.2 billion Globe Life Field, with a retractable roof and air conditioning, right next to their not-very-old and still perfectly good stadium. The residents of Arlington are chipping in $500 million of that cost.

As climate change continues to bestow its work upon the planet, Texas Rangers Baseball are one of the many feeling its effects. Globe Life Field, the new HKS designed baseball park under construction in Arlington, Texas, and due for completion in March of next year, is the $1.2 billion response to the rising heat.

Globe Life Stadium. Courtesy of HKS

As innovations in stadium design continue to progress, the 'inconveniences' of the past will become the luxuries of the future, sweaty patrons now will have the comfort of climate controlled competition.

Matt Rossetti on tennis design

2019-09-05T14:00:00-04:00

Sports journalist Tim Newcomb has penned an intriguing exploration of tennis stadium design, looking at the architecture through the work of Matt Rossetti, an architect and established expert in this typology.

Rossetti started in tennis design in 1990 with his father's architecture firm, Rossetti Architects. Now the president of the firm, Rosetti still seeks to push the envelope in tennis design. "We are trying to redefine the tennis stadium every time," Rossetti expressed in Newcomb's article, acknowledging the tendency architects tend to have to repeatedly reinvent something.

Miami Open Tennis Complex. Rossetti Architects. Photo by Rafael Gamo

Newcomb dives into Rossetti's innovative design of the 2019 Miami Open that was held in the Hard Rock Stadium. Here, Rossetti introduced a temporary pop-up stadium within the existing 65,000-seat football stadium. "I think about what we did for the Miami Open and I think a lot of people are going to look at that as a future trend, where you c...

Populous stretched 88,000 sq ft of fabric to create the skin for Minnesota's new Allianz Field stadium

2019-03-25T20:16:00-04:00

Construction recently completed on Alllianz Field, the soccer stadium that will be the new home to Minnesota United who plays their first game on April 13th against NYCFC.

Designed by the Kansas-city sports architecture firm Populous, Allianz Field draws its distinction from an exterior custom-tailored to the Twin Cities. Blending parametric design with old school steel-working techniques, the firm gave the 19,400-seat stadium an iconic skin inspired by Minnesota's abundant waters.

Through many trials and tribulations, the firm was able to get the desired effect by taking 88,000 square feet of transparent and laminated fabric and stretching it over the structure's steel ribs. To give it a glow that recalls the Northern Lights (which fill the northern state's skies from late fall to winter), the mesh exterior has been backlight with 1,700 LED lights.

Having built arenas such as Yankee Stadium and the London Olympics Stadium, Populous is well-versed in executing bold visions. "All ...