Populous (architects' office)
Populous is an international architecture and design firm headquartered in Kansas City . The main focus of the company is on the construction and design of sports facilities as well as the design of special events, many of the buildings designed by the company's architects were the venues for important sporting events.
background
Populous came into being in 2009 as a management buy-out from HOK Sport Venue Event , the sports facility division of the Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum architects founded in 1955 . The company was founded in 1983 in Kansas City and in 1998 merged with the London and Brisbane design firm LOBB Partnership . As a result, the three cities remained the company's main offices, which in the course of time set up additional offices in various countries. In October 2015, the company moved its headquarters within Kansas City to the recently renovated Kansas City Board of Trade building .
In the late 1980s, made HOK Sport Venue Event name with the construction of various ballparks of Major League Baseball , where various aesthetic elements such as exposed steel beams and brick walls as a throwback to the time of the opening of baseball as a popular national sport in the United States was installed in the 1910s and 1920s. Typical examples are the Oriole Park at Camden Yards of the Baltimore Orioles , which was opened in 1992 and is also named as the first representative of this trend, the Coors Field used by the Colorado Rockies or the Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009 .
Against this background, the American football stadium Hard Rock Stadium was built in Miami, which was built until 1987 and was originally designed for the settlement of a baseball team and was ultimately used by the Miami Dolphins today . In the first year of its existence, the stadium was the venue for the Super Bowl . As a result, various football stadiums were designed by the architectural office, up to now, in addition to the Miamier Arena, TIAA Bank Field , Raymond James Stadium , NRG Stadium and State Farm Stadium have hosted the most important football match in the world.
Other international projects in which Populous were either leading or partially involved include the London Olympic Stadium and football stadiums in top European leagues or as venues for European Cup finals such as the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon , which was remodeled in the run-up to the 2004 European Championship , the London arenas Emirates Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium , the Groupama Stadium in Lyon , or the Friends Arena in Sweden, but also the FNB Stadium designed for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa or the Kazan Arena built for the 2018 World Cup in Russia .
Populous or its predecessor HOK Sport Venue Event has been involved in the supporting program of important events such as various Olympic and Paralympic Games , the FIFA World Cup , the Final Four tournaments of the NCAA basketball championships and all Super Bowls since 1985.