Archinect - News

Populous advances new downtown ballpark district proposal in Kansas City

2024-02-22T12:51:00-05:00

The Kansas City Royals are advancing a scheme for a new downtown stadium district designed by Populous in a neighborhood called the Crossroads.

Slotted into a 17.5-acre site at the confluence of Grand Boulevard, Locust Street, Truman Road, and 17th Street, the development would offer a connector to the nearby South Loop Link project from OJB Landscape Architecture and BNIM. The proposal calls for an experience-laden "Arts District" to be enacted alongside the new ballpark, with a new hotel, shops, a residential component, and shopping also included.

Rendering courtesy of Populous

The site currently includes some undeveloped plots and small businesses adjacent to the Power & Light District. The franchise had previously floated plans for a new stadium (sans entertainment district) in either the East Village or North Kansas City. Cost estimates for the project are between $1–2 billion.

Rendering courtesy of Populous

Populous CEO Earl Santee told reporters: "This is my 23rd major league ...

New Buffalo Bills stadium reaches milestone with start of structural steel construction

2024-02-05T08:00:00-05:00

A milestone was reached recently regarding the construction of the new, Populous-designed Buffalo Bills football stadium, the New Highmark Stadium.

The 60,000-seat facility, located in Orchard Park, New York, is now ready for large-scale structural steel work. This marks the completion of excavation work, seven months after the project broke ground in June 2023. Approximately 25,000 tons of steel will be installed, with several massive cranes used to build the superstructure. The steel will be erected in tiers over the next 12–14 months.

Previously on Archinect: Buffalo Bills tap Populous to design proposed stadium

Following the placement of the steel framework, the structure will be clad, mechanical, plumbing, and electrical will be installed, and each of the sections of the stadium will be built out.

Construction on the 1.35-million-square-foot stadium is expected to be completed in 2026. The Gilbane-Turner joint venture is in charge of construction.

Populous designs modular Cricket World Cup stadium on Long Island

2024-01-26T18:31:00-05:00

Populous has announced its design for the International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 stadium in Nassau County, Long Island.

The modular, 34,000-seat facility will be used for eight matches of the two-week tournament, which commences in June. Construction is set to begin in February and will reuse portions of the grandstand structures that were made for November's Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

“Cricket is a truly global sport with a passionate, knowledgeable fanbase and we’re thrilled to partner with the ICC and help bring the Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup to the United States,” Jeff Keas, a Senior Principal at Populous, said in a news release. “The modular, sustainable stadium we’ve designed will create a fantastic experience for both U.S. and international cricket fans and visitors to enjoy watching the world’s best teams and players.”

Image courtesy Populous

A party deck, fan suites, and other club and cabana spaces will also be included as part of the 80,000-square-f...

Populous unveils cliffside Saudi stadium design formed of modular cubes

2024-01-22T11:44:00-05:00

Populous has unveiled plans for a major stadium in Saudi Arabia to be constructed on top of a 650-foot-tall cliff. The Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Stadium seeks to “draw visitors from across the globe and revolutionize the traditional stadium experience with its immersive design and unique technological features,” according to the team.

Image credit: Populous

Located in Qiddiya City, 40 minutes from the capital Riyadh, the venue is designed to host the country’s largest sports, entertainment, and cultural events and is expected to attract 7.6 million annual visits. The stadium will be the world’s first venue with a combined retractable roof, pitch, and LED wall, offering what the team calls “unparalleled versatility” in “allowing the space to transform into different ‘event modes’ in a matter of hours.”

When activated, the LED wall will display live event broadcasts, high-definition films, and laser shows. When not in use, the wall gives way to views of the city from the venue’s cliff...

Plans for London’s Sphere are no more as developers abandon project

2024-01-09T11:29:00-05:00

The developers behind the proposed MSG Sphere in London have withdrawn plans for the project. In a letter to the UK government’s Planning Inspectorate, developers Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSG) said that the scheme had become “merely a political football between rival parties.”

Plans for the Sphere first emerged in 2018, with planning permission filed in March 2019. London’s mayor Sadiq Khan was originally supportive of the scheme upon its announcement, but a combination of negative feedback in planning officer reports and backlash from locals saw Khan refuse the project permission in November 2023.

The saga continued in December when the UK’s Housing Secretary, Michael Gove, asked for the plans to be personally reviewed by the Planning Inspectorate, which falls under his department. With both a UK-wide general election and London mayoral election set to take place in the country later this year, the project was set to become a major campaign issue between Gove’s ruling C...

Populous reveals new esports arena design for Saudi Arabia's Qiddiya megaproject

2023-12-26T18:29:00-05:00

Populous has announced its plans for an esports gaming center in the new Qiddiya City entertainment district of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The proposed Qiddiya City Esports Arena is included under the Saudi Vision 2030 umbrella and serves a considerable market of gaming fans within the country that is anticipated to grow to contribute $13 billion to the country’s GDP annually in the same time period.

Populous will leverage a considerable past experience in esports and gaming, including the NBA 2K League Broadcast Arena, Fortress Melbourne, and the new Esports Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The firm says its final product will be unique to them all both in terms of scale and their users’ experience, creating a “fantasy world” with capacity for more than 5,155 players.

Image courtesy Populous

The program is divided into six translucent volumes, each with its own LED-lit entrance. Once inside, the gaming experience will be focused into a central bowl seating arrangement wrapped by two concours...

Take a look inside the Las Vegas Sphere's interior and lighting designs

2023-12-22T14:05:00-05:00

New York-based design studio ICRAVE has shared a special look inside its interior, wayfinding, and lighting design work on the headline-grabbing new Sphere entertainment venue in Las Vegas.

Besides its 580,000-square-foot fully programmable exterior LED facade and the 160,000-square interior display for 17,500 guests, Sphere features another 300,000 square feet of interior space spread across eight levels.

Cross section rendering of Sphere. Image courtesy Sphere Entertainment

The lighting strategy for its lobby, VIP clubs, food and beverage spaces, and other hospitality suites was designed to mimic the geometry of the venue (now the world’s largest spherical structure) and insists on stage lighting to further communicate its purpose to the world.

Photo: Rich Fury, courtesy Sphere Entertainment

“We needed the surrounding spaces to live up to the promise of what’s inside the bowl and to ensure...

Inter Milan unveils San Siro stadium replacement proposal from Populous

2023-12-22T11:41:00-05:00

Inter Milan’s plans for its first new home away from San Siro are getting a little bit clearer after the Serie A club released a few preliminary renderings for a Populous-designed stadium in Rozzano.

The announcement was made this week and follows the city’s decision not to grant approvals to a 2021 proposal from the firm called "The Cathedral" that would have been built as a shared facility with AC Milan and surrounded by a new entertainment district at the site of the nearly 100-year-old stadium.

In the aftermath, both clubs are now pursuing separate venues. The new Inter stadium will have capacity for 70,000 fans with a year-round ‘sports town’ fan area situated outside among the landscaped open park spaces of the site, which offers an easy connection to the city center. A fan survey has now been introduced as the club and Populous continue along the design process. No official construction timelines have been proposed yet.

Rendering courtesy Inter Milan

Speaking on Instagram, the...

South Korea moves closer to getting its own MSG Sphere

2023-12-16T08:00:00-05:00

South Korean media outlets are reporting on a deal that would bring a new MSG Sphere design to the Seoul region just weeks after its controversial London predecessor was rejected over suspect environmental impact assessments and local opposition.

The new 20,000-capacity venue will feature a 1.2 million LED display, the same numbers as the now-open Las Vegas counterpart. The potential satellite would be included in the city of Hanam’s K-Star World project, a mixed-use district totaling 900,000 square meters and located roughly 12 miles to the east of the capital’s Gangnam neighborhood, according to the Korea Economic Daily.

"If Hanam attracts Asia’s first MSG Sphere, it will be an opportunity for Korea’s entertainment industry to take a quantum leap in attracting huge overseas investment and tourists," Mayor Lee Hyun-Jae told the paper in August.

He was reportedly looki...

So much for the controversial London Sphere after Mayor Sadiq Khan refuses planning permission

2023-11-20T18:54:00-05:00

The proposed MSG Sphere in East London has been scrapped with the late decision by Mayor Sadiq Khan to refuse planning permissions over grounds that its design causes a public nuisance to residents of the surrounding Stratford district.

The long-controversial Sphere had been derided by critics and locals alike since first being revealed in January of 2018. Myriad attempts at halting the application process had been lodged in the years leading up to Monday's decision. Populous, which has also developed its well-reviewed twin in Las Vegas, was responsible for the 21,500-capacity design proposal.

The issue of light pollution had always been a critical factor in its pending success as a proposed entertainment venue sited in place of the 4.7-acre former coach park of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Khan’s decision cited the issue along with two other factors for the refusal, including its huge operational costs and an overall lack of green credentials for the project. Its impact on se...

The New Yorker dissects the immersive potential of Sphere and City

2023-11-14T08:00:00-05:00

The differences between “City” and the Sphere are deep, true, yet narrower than you might suppose—the works are trying for the same things but in opposite ways. Both are big, expensive, geometric structures in the desert that offer visitors a vivid encounter with the natural world—one with exquisite footage of jellyfish and the like, the other with deftly roughened rock and concrete.

The New Yorker’s art critic Jackson Arn takes on two of the most recent (and spectacular) cultural offerings of the Silver State — "One with a deluge of images and the other with a tantalizing lack of them," as he writes.

Related on Archinect: Take a look at photos of Michael Heizer's 'City' ahead of its debut (45°, 90°, 180°, City. © Michael Heizer. Courtesy Triple Aught Foundation. Photo: Joe Rome)

Populous to design Beaver Stadium renovation for Penn State

2023-10-18T17:09:00-04:00

Populous has been named as the lead architect for a major renovation of the historic Beaver Stadium on the flagship campus of The Pennsylvania State University.

Barton Malow, AECOM Hunt, and Alexander Building Construction will join the project as construction managers, expanding on over 20 years of collaboration with Populous. The scope of the renovation entails winterizing the entire stadium for year-round use as an entertainment venue or the potential host of a college football playoff game. The western side of the stadium will also be reconstructed to include new executive suites and loge seating areas. Other renovations will be enacted in order to keep up with code upgrades and accessibility concerns. The reported cost of the project is $700 million.

The school emphasized its funding would be provided for entirely by the Athletics department, circumventing the need for tuition hikes. Construction is expected to begin in January of 2025 and conclude in time for the start of the ...

Learning from Las Vegas’ new Sphere as it shines a light on the future of entertainment design

2023-10-02T15:24:00-04:00

The buzz that followed the recent debut of Populous' $2.3 billion Sphere in Las Vegas has provided one academic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a valuable teaching opportunity to expose students to cutting-edge concepts integral to the future of high-tech spatial experience, urban development, and entertainment design.

“I’m excited to see some of my own students in the master of architecture program, have played a role in things like commissioning of the Sphere as part of their internships, looking at the building system performance,” Associate Professor of Architecture Glenn NP Nowak told the local affiliate KLAS-TV recently. “We have looked at the integration of digital technology, obviously it’s paramount when looking at that, it’s impossible to ignore and it shows that evolution we’ve seen throughout the Strip.”

Nowak serves as the founding director of the UNLV School o...

Refik Anadol previews new AI data sculpture installation for Las Vegas Sphere

2023-08-31T17:54:00-04:00

A new AI Data Sculpture installation from Refik Anadol has been unveiled ahead of its public premiere tomorrow, September 1st, at the newly-complete Sphere entertainment venue in Las Vegas.

The sculpture utilizes the structure’s Exosphere, a digital canvas covering that can be programmed to display content thanks to its world-leading array of 1.2 million different LED ‘pucks’ which are spaced 8 inches apart to form an almost 580,000-square-foot display.

Anadol says: “It’s so exciting to be given such an architectural and engineering marvel as a canvas. This opportunity aligns perfectly with our studio’s long-term mission of embedding media arts into architecture to create living architectural pieces that are in constant interaction with their environments.”

Rendering courtesy Refik Anadol Studio

The latest in his Machine Hallucinations series will offer viewers a meditative and elaborate multisensory experience based on accumulated local atmospheric data that are consolidated and th...

Populous' combined AC/Inter Milan 'Cathedral' proposal is likely out for San Siro

2023-08-10T11:15:00-04:00

This officially ends Inter and AC Milan's plans to tear down large swathes of the historic stadium and build a new 'Cathedral' home in the surrounding grounds, though the clubs had been planning for this rejection for some time. Inter and AC Milan are therefore pursuing other stadium options elsewhere, which will most likely see them separate after sharing a veritable footballing cauldron since 1947.

The Populous-designed plan was cast into doubt by the Regional Commission for the Cultural Heritage of Lombardy last week, ending an intriguing saga that saw opposition from locals concerned about the environmental impact of demolition and its commentary on the influence of foreign investment in European football. Their proposed stadium (dubbed “The Cathedral”) would have created a massive entertainment district at San Siro with considerations for the architectural heritage of Milan, including the iconic Duomo and Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.

Previously on Archinect: Populous tapped to lead design of new combined Inter & AC Milan stadium

Both teams have reached deals for separate stadiums in the city’s suburbs, with Populous still on board for the new Inter design and Manica behind AC's new San Donato home base, according to reporting last week in the Architects’ Journal.

Watch Las Vegas’ MSG Sphere light up for Fourth of July debut

2023-07-05T18:11:00-04:00

At 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide, it’s being billed as the world’s largest spherical structure. Its bowl-shaped theater reportedly contains the world’s highest-resolution wraparound LED screen. And its exterior is fitted with 1.2 million hockey puck-sized LEDs that can be programmed to flash dynamic imagery on a massive scale – again, reportedly the world’s largest. It was fully illuminated for the first time Tuesday night to celebrate the Fourth of July.

The venue doesn’t officially debut until late September with the beginning of U2’s special residency. The sphere will blast tunes from its hyper-customizable 164,000-speaker audio system, which somehow can even direct specific languages to certain parts of the audience.

Video courtesy of Sphere/YouTube

Testing of its eye-burning extierior didn’t commence until just last week. In a press statement, Sphere Entertainment SVP Guy Barnett called it “living architecture, and unlike anything that exists anywhere in the world.”

Spaceport America selects RS&H, Populous, Zia team for master plan project in New Mexico

2023-05-18T17:47:00-04:00

The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) has selected a team comprising RS&H, Populous, and Zia Engineering & Environmental Consultants to spearhead the Spaceport America Master Plan Project.

Located adjacent to the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico, Spaceport America is the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world. It aims to serve as a multi-modal site for point-to-point space transportation, aerospace operations, research, development, and testing.

The spaceport master plan study will explore the potential for future space and aviation operations, macro and micro-industry trends, national security space requirements and operations, public and private investments, potential launch vehicles operating from the site, frequency of flights, potential payloads, propellant storage, regulatory trends, and development options for future spaceport operations.

Populous will provide master-planning support, along with leading the branding and event pro...

'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 attached to proposed Etihad Stadium expansion for Manchester City FC

2023-04-18T18:16:00-04:00

Manchester City Football Club has just released renderings for a proposed expansion of their 24-year-old Etihad Stadium led by Populous.

The submission to the Manchester City Council calls for a “best-in-class” fan experience and year-round live entertainment venue to be integrated into the stadium complex. The scheme was proposed following the results of a monthlong consultation process with fans and members of the local community and will help expand seating capacity during performances to over 60,000.

A 3,000-capacity covered exterior City Square fan zone is also included in the design, along with plans for a 400-room hotel, team store, and museum.

Image courtesy Manchester City FC

A new tier will be added above the stadium’s North Stand section to provide space for the new accommodations. The plan also calls for the inclusion of startup spaces in the development, supported by City Football Group and Etihad Campus. Manchester City is promising investments in excess of £300 millio...

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...

The future of London's MSG Sphere may be getting clearer despite concerns

2023-01-24T17:42:00-05:00

[The] MSG Sphere, a new concert hall planned for Stratford in east London – which would be as wide as the London Eye and as tall as Big Ben – could soon move a step closer to reality. On Tuesday evening, the planning committee of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) will meet to consider its developer’s plans for managing the advertising display and its impact.

Efforts to halt the development of the Populous-designed entertainment venue date back to late 2020, when the public consultation phase for the project was extended for a third time over concerns about light pollution. Plans were approved by the LLDC in March of last year contingent on an agreement for a five-year review of the giant billboard’s 25-year advertising consent, which was accepted at Tuesday’s meeting. The project will now go before London Mayor Sadiq Khan for final approval.

Madison Square Garden (MSG)'s revised plan reportedly calls for a “suite of mitigation measures” to combat the effects of what would be the world's largest LED display. The intense visual impact of its Las Vegas counterpart is already being seen as a hazard.

A statement from the opposition group Stop MSG Sphere can be viewed below.

We gave it our best shot (the statement we gave at the meeting tonight is below). We're deeply disappointed no one voted against the paltry 5yr review on the 25YR adver...

Five major sports and entertainment venues by Populous: Your Next Employer?

2023-01-17T13:30:00-05:00

Following our previous visit to San Francisco-based Mork-Ulnes Architects, we are using the first 2023 edition of our Meet Your Next Employer series to explore the work of global sports and entertainment venue specialists Populous.

Founded in 1983, the firm operates 23 global offices including eight in the United States. Among the 3000+ projects in the firm’s portfolio include commissions for sports franchises such as MLB, the NBA, and the NFL, as well as major sporting events such as the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

The firm’s background and culture were further explored back in late 2018 when we sat down with Missy Ragsdale, Director of Human Resources at Populous's Kansas City office as part of our How To Get A Job At ___ series. “Three words we regularly hear staff use to describe Populous are adaptive, energetic, and entrepreneurial,” Ragsdale told us.

Populous and HASTINGS complete North America's largest purpose-built soccer venue in Nashville

2022-10-27T12:53:00-04:00

A day after Nashville’s NFL franchise unveiled its plans for a new 60,000-seat stadium, Populous and HASTINGS have officially announced the completion of what is now the largest purpose-built soccer stadium in North America for Tennessee’s "other" football team, Nashville SC.

Located inside the Nashville Fairgrounds complex, the 30,000-seat GEODIS Park is meant to evoke the "look and feel" of the Music City’s industrial past as it enhances the local civic space with a multipurpose facility that can accommodate a host of different public events, concerts, and other community activities.

Image: Tom Harris courtesy Nashville SC

"GEODIS Park is a world-class stadium that speaks specifically to human scale," Bruce Miller, Populous’ Senior Principal and Managing Director for the Americas, said in a statement. "The Nashville identity is seamlessly and authentically woven into the design and the fabric of this stadium through our collaboration with HAST...

Populous will help the Toronto Blue Jays modernize the Rogers Centre for the first time in 33 years

2022-08-01T13:20:00-04:00

The Toronto Blue Jays baseball team has unveiled its first round of new upgrades to the Rogers Centre. They claim it will turn their 33-year-old home into a modern player and fan-experience-oriented baseball facility thanks to a privately-funded $300 million CAD ($234 million USD) effort.

Populous has been tapped to handle all aspects of the renovation, including creating new social areas across three levels, replacement of aging seats, reworked outfield and bullpens, and new family and training areas for the team. The firm had previously worked with the Blue Jays to hasten a series of similar enhancements to its Spring Training facility before the start of last year's season, the first six weeks of which had to be played in Florida.

Image render courtesy of Populous.

This will constitute the first time any architectural firm has laid its hands on the former SkyDome in any significant way since Rod Robbie’s 53,506-seat venue debuted as the world’s first-ever retractable roof stadium ...

As Milan's San Siro stadium goes, so goes the city

2022-05-23T14:56:00-04:00

AC Milan’s Serie A championship title over the weekend brought out the missives on placemaking and memory concerning the club’s future in the 96-year-old stadium adored by the Milanese as their seconda casa.

The facilities, last upgraded in 1990 and renovated throughout the 2000s by the local firm Ragazzi and Partners, are set to be replaced by a new “cathedral” designed by American sport heavyweight Populous for the year 2027. Many feel it is the last victim of a changed European Soccer landscape dominated by Russian oligarchs and other monied interests from abroad after the late-1990s to early-2000s.

Previously on Archinect: Populous tapped to lead design of new combined Inter & AC Milan stadium

Alternatives, including its reuse as a massive Covid memorial, have been proposed by the faithful, who also claim a demolition effort of such size would be harmful to the environment. A final approval is still on the horizon for later this year. The architects of the new stadium say their...

Populous announces a new esports arena and NFT collection in its hometown

2022-04-29T20:03:00-04:00

Sports arena mainstay Populous is venturing into new territory after its announcement of a new five-part NFT collection in partnership with their hometown esports franchise aptly named the Kansas City Pioneers.

According to the firm, the collection is meant to showcase a prototype future home for fans of the increasingly popular potential future Olympic competition.

Image courtesy Populous

The new project represents the firm’s third official foray into esports following their 100,000 square foot Esports Stadium Arlington and the planned $500 million Toronto hotel and entertainment complex being developed in collaboration with OverActive Media.

Previously on Archinect: Populous and OverActive Media unveil updated plans for performance venue in Toronto

Pioneers co-founder Mark Josey says it will “[provide] access to authentic, personalized experiences, and build connections to a community here and beyond.” The new digital arena can be accessed via the metaverse platform OpenSea and pla...

Populous' London MSG Sphere is on the cusp of final approval in spite of objections

2022-03-17T11:58:00-04:00

A planning report for the scheme acknowledges criticism of the Sphere for its scale and massing, its impact on Stratford Station, and the impact of advertising on nearby residents. But it says the Sphere would ‘establish a strong sense of place at a scale that is not considered to be excessive, taking account of the established scale of surrounding buildings.

More than 1,000 objections were lodged against the project, which will come before the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) for a final approval vote on Tuesday. Their voices echo the derision Guardian critic Oliver Wainwright and others have parroted against the giant LED display’s ungainly light and noise pollution, murky politics, and sky-high price tag.

The public consultation process has been delayed several times over, but now appears to be inching towards the finish line, bringing out some of the opposition’s bigger names in a last-ditch effort to stop the Sphere from happening.

Previously on Archinect: Future of MSG Sphere London still undecided

“We are calling on the LLDC to refuse MSG’s application for a new venue in Stratford and encourage the Mayor of London to formally oppose this project in order to protect Newham’s residents and existing businesses from this inappropriate development,” a spokesperson for AEG, which operates London’s O2 Arena said in a letter ...

Buffalo Bills tap Populous to design proposed stadium

2022-03-14T14:55:00-04:00

In a sign the Buffalo Bills are closing in on a stadium deal, the team hired Populous architectural firm to draw up designs for its proposed new facility, a person familiar with discussions confirmed to The Associated Press on Thursday.

The Buffalo Bills are seeking to replace their existing facility, which opened in 1973. Renovations were deemed too expensive. Negotiations are ongoing to see if state funds would be allocated toward the proposed $1.354 billion open-air, 60,000-plus seat stadium. According to AP News, New York Governor Kathy Hochul expressed confidence that a deal can be made before the end of the month, so it can be included on the state budget due in April. If approved, construction on the new stadium could be completed by the start of the 2026 season.

Los Angeles City Planning Commission clears Convention Center and J.W. Marriot hotel expansion

2022-03-01T17:29:00-05:00

In a series of votes last week, the City Planning Commission has given the go-ahead to a more than $1 billion project which will simultaneously expand the Los Angeles Convention Center and adjoining J.W. Marriott hotel complex.

The long-awaited expansion led by a public-private partnership between the City of Los Angeles, AEG, and Plenary Group would see the construction of a Gensler-designed, 37-story hotel tower and conference center atop an existing parking garage. Combined with the neighboring J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotel, this project would be the second-largest hotel in California if built.

Previously on Archinect: An expansion of Downtown LA's Convention Center is once again underway

In addition to the hotel complex, plans call for spending more than $500 million on a Populous-led 700,000-square-foot expansion of the Convention Center. The project also includes public realm improvements to the surrounding area, overseen by Olin as the landscape architect. According to Urbanize, the developers aim to break ground on the project within the year, with construction of the hotel expected to occur over three years.

Populous-designed 'Ice Ribbon' for the 2022 Winter Olympics takes center stage in Beijing

2022-02-03T13:08:00-05:00

The eyes of the world will soon turn to the new Populous-designed National Speed Skating Oval as the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics prepare to kick off in Beijing.

As the only new permanent venue at this year’s games, the 'Ice Ribbon' takes its place in line with the National Aquatics Center and Ai Weiwei and Herzog & de Meuron-designed Bird’s Nest on a central corridor called the Olympic Green. The design is meant to symbolize speed and dynamism associated with the sport of speed skating.

Image courtesy Populous

The 12,000-seat venue will host the speed skating events and later be transformed into the long-term home for China’s newIce and Snow Sports Development Plan, which aims to get an impressive 300 million people involved in winter sports by the year 2025.

Image courtesy Populous

“Much of the inspiration for the conceptual design of the ‘Ice Ribbon’ came from a traditional ice game played in old Beijing which involved a high-speed spinning ice top,” explains Populous Ch...