Everton Stadium will be American architect Dan Meis' “first significant venture" into European soccer and he admitted he was "wary about being tasked with dreaming up" the Premier League club's new stadium, according to Chris Beesley of the LIVERPOOL ECHO. Meis said, “I was very conscious when I got the first meeting with Everton. I thought: ‘Why would they hire an American?’” He added, “I think it really helped me because I dug deep into my research about the history of the club and the history of the city of Liverpool. ... I had to be able to bring a real understanding as to what was special about this.” Meis said not being from England "helped me in a way because I didn’t take anything for granted.” He has “interacted enthusiastically with Evertonians on social media throughout the project.” Meis said he has gotten into "some pretty rough discussions from time to time about capacity, how big it should be and how important it was to be bigger than" Liverpool FC's stadium Anfield, but that "push-pull made the design better” (LIVERPOOL ECHO, 9/10).
