Several Kansas City sports architects could form a coalition to compete against HOK Sport to design $575 million in improvements at Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium, an official of one firm said.
 |
Voters defeated a plan to include a rolling roof
as part of the improvements. |
Jackson County, Mo., voters approved a tax increase of three-eighths of a cent last week to raise $425 million to renovate the two publicly owned facilities. Voters defeated a plan to initiate a tax on business purchases to raise $200 million for a rolling roof that could cover either stadium.
The Royals and Chiefs are contributing a combined $150 million for the renovation projects and will meet soon to begin the process state law requires to hire designers and general contractors. HOK has designed previous improvements for the stadiums, which are both more than 30 years old, and the Royals used the architect’s renderings to support their case for another renovation, making the firm a strong favorite in the process.
Stuart Smith, Ellerbe Becket’s director of business development, mentioned that his firm could talk to other designers in town about forming a team to bid for the work, though he said last week that no such discussions had so far taken place. Ellerbe, HOK and 360 Architecture joined forces in 2004 to win the job to plan Sprint Center, Kansas City’s new arena.
Randy Bredar, vice president of the firm HNTB, said, “I do know that HOK has done a significant amount of work for the teams, and that’s going to figure into our decision on what to do.”
Ellerbe, HOK, 360 and DLR Group have previously consulted free of charge for the Jackson County Sports Authority, the stadiums’ landlord, and the authority employed 360 last year to plan repairs to both stadiums.
Each team will independently choose three architects and three contractors to whom it will send proposals and then will pick finalists in each category, said Mike Smith, chairman of the authority.
