Populous (company)

Populous
Industry	Architecture
Founded	1983
Number of locations	Kansas City (USA); London (UK); Brisbane (Australia); New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Nashville (USA); Rio (Brazil); Incheon (South Korea)
Area served	World
Services	Sports, events, conference and exhibition centre architecture; Interior design; Environmental graphics; Wayfinding; Events planning; Overlay; Masterplanning; Sustainable design consulting; Facilities operations analysis; Official Architectural and Overlay Design Services Provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games;
Employees	455
Website	Populous

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Populous, formerly known as HOK Sport, is an architectural firm specializing in the design of sports facilities and convention centers, as well as planning of major special events.

The firm enjoys a dominant role in the design of sporting stadiums and arenas, including such globally prominent facilities as the new Yankee Stadium, Wembley Stadium in London, Stadium Australia in Sydney, Wimbledon Centre Court, Minneapolis's Target Field, San Francisco's AT&T Park, Chicago's United Center arena, Cleveland Browns Stadium, Pittsburgh's Heinz Field, Houston's Reliant Stadium, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium, the renovation of Chicago's Wrigley Field, University of Phoenix Stadium, the renovation of Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg for the 2010 World Cup, London's 2012 Olympic Stadium, Miami's Sun Life Stadium, Ascot Racecourse, New York's Citi Field, Benfica's Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and the O2 Arenas in London, Berlin, and Dublin.

Populous formerly operated as HOK Sport Venue Event, which was part of the HOK Group. In January 2009, Populous was created through a management buyout, becoming independently owned and operated. It is reported to be one of the largest architecture firms in the world.^[1]^[2]^[3]

[edit] History

Logo of the former HOK Sports

HOK under Jerry Sincoff created its sports group in 1983 (initially called the Sports Facilities Group and later changed to HOK Sport Venue Event). The firm initially consisted of eight architects in Kansas City, and grew to employ 185 people by 1996.^[4]

On several projects, HOK Sport had teamed with international design practice LOBB Partnership, which maintained offices in London, England, and Brisbane, Australia. On HOK Sport's 15th anniversary in November 1998, the firm merged with LOBB. The new practice retained headquarters in all three cities.

The Kansas City, Missouri, office was first based in the city's Garment District in the Lucas Place office building.^[5] In 2005, it moved into its current headquarters at 300 Wyandotte in the River Market neighborhood in a new building it designed, on land developed as an urban renewal project through tax incentives from the city's Planned Industrial Expansion Authority. It was the first major company to relocate to the neighborhood in several decades.^[6]

The company is one of several Kansas City-based sports design firms that trace their roots to Kivett and Myers which designed by the Truman Sports Complex which was one of the first modern large single purpose sports stadiums (previously, stadiums were designed for multipurpose use). Other firms with sports design presence in Kansas City that trace their roots to Kivett include Ellerbe Becket Inc. and HNTB Corp..^[7]