A
li Towle’s fingerprints are evident throughout the San Francisco 49ers’ new Levi’s Stadium.
As the team’s vice president of marketing, Towle filled the role of brand officer for the club during construction of the $1.3 billion venue. She specifically managed development of the stadium’s museum and its art collection, but ultimately, her oversight extended to everything in the building that was tied to the 49ers’ brand.
Ali
Towle
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS
That responsibility meant Towle had some tough decisions to make along the way in terms of hiring employees and consultants involved in the project — including replacing the team’s signage design firm midway through the development. A new consultant, Infinite Scale, redid all the signage in the summer of 2013, one year before the stadium opened.
“I was the person who went out on a limb,” Towle said. “No one wanted to switch, but several months after we had, everyone admitted it was the right decision, although painful.”
Towle also formed what was called the Creative Council, a group of architects from stadium designer HNTB and officials from Infinite Scale, Sports & the Arts (the company hired to help build the art collection) and Cambridge Seven Associates (designer of the museum and the stadium’s team store). Together, the group of 15 met regularly to share updates and collaborate on elements such as ensuring that the wayfinding signs in the museum matched directional graphics elsewhere in the stadium.
“They all said to me … this is the first project they worked on where they were able to talk to the other people helping on the building,” Towle said. “I’m very proud of that, and hopefully the results speak for themselves.”
— Don Muret
