Big-time sports architect Dan Meis, who has designed, among other projects, LA’s Staples Center and Seattle’s Safeco Field, is on the move yet again. In the span of just a few years he has shuffled from his own practice to Aedas, then back to his own firm to Populous, to his own firm again, and now he is joining Australian firm Woods Bagot Sport to become its global director. Exciting opportunties? Commitment issues? “I’m not crazy about having been with a couple of different firms in a short time period,” admitted Meis. But he sees it differently: “For me it feels like I’ve been in the same practice all along. It just feels like I’ve been associated with a lot of firms.”
So why Woods Bagot? Not only has the firm made a strong commitment to sports (an issue he had at Aedas when the economy took a hit), but Meis won’t have to compete internally to work on major projects (a problem he ran into at Populous). The final straw at Populous came when the firm took on plans for a new LA Convention Center by AEG, putting him into direct conflict with one of his existing projects, a football stadium for LA’s City of Industry. (AEG is proposing a competing stadium in Downtown LA.)
Meanwhile Meis will get to continue working on a number of his recent projects, including the City of Industry football stadium, a soccer arena in Rome, and an arena for the upcoming 2022 World Cup in Qatar.