HOK Sports + Recreation + Entertainment is designing the new stadium in Atlanta that will serve as home for both a National Football League and a Major League Soccer franchise. (Photo by HOK Sports + Recreation + Entertainment)
It’s official. HOK has completed its acquisition of the 200-person, Kansas City-based firm 360 Architecture, responsible for projects including Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and the new Atlanta stadium.
HOK had been eager to get back into the world of sports and entertainment. The firm had a facet operating as HOK Sport Venue Event until 2009 when Populous broke off as an independent company through a management buyout. The terms specified that HOK couldn’t compete in the space for a predetermined period of time.
“We had a period of five years where we couldn’t practice sports architecture, but once that was over we knew we wanted to be back in sports architecture in some way,” said HOK President Bill Helmuth. HOK could have grown the sports and entertainment practice organically — and started to — but then heard about the opportunity with 360 Architecture. “It just made so much sense and fit with the overall scheme of the different building types we want to be in,” said Helmuth, adding that the two organizations first met in July and began collaborating right away.
The merger is most apparent in San Francisco, where both companies already had offices and have begun to share space. The 360 name is going to go away, with the division operating as HOK Sports + Recreation + Entertainment.
Though financial details were not disclosed, Helmuth did share “suffice it to say that it was a wonderful experience. The figures were good and appropriate on both sides of the table.”
No one will be let go as a result of the merger and, in fact, the company hopes that business secured due to the partnership will allow them to bring on more talent.
“It’s kind of a 1+1=3 situation,” said Brad Schrock, former 360 Architecture principal and director HOK Sports + Recreation + Entertainment. “HOK has a global network with really strong relationships that continues to open up new opportunities for the sports, recreation and entertainment market.” Though he can’t pinpoint any contracts that have directly resulted from the partnership, he did add that he’s “been fielding a number of phone calls and opportunities since we announced this.”
The combined company plans to bring the experience of both HOK and the team that was 360 Architecture to bear on new and existing projects.
“This whole merger is about quality and improving that as opposed to quantity,” said Helmuth. “When your quality is better, quantity follows.”
Currently, HOK’s global Sports + Recreation + Entertainment practice is participating on design teams for the Dubai Expo 2020 host venue in the UAE; a new multipurpose stadium in Atlanta to serve as the home for the NFL Atlanta Falcons and a new Major League Soccer franchise, and a proposed new ballpark for Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics in San Jose, Calif., among others.
HOK isn’t new to the world of mergers.
“We have always looked at and used merging with another firm as a way of filling in sports within our practice that we thought were really important areas of architectural exploration and design fields we wanted to be in,” said Helmuth. HOK joined with hospitality firm BBG-BBGM in December 2013.
Directors of the new HOK division also include former 360 Architecture leaders Nate Appleman and James Braam, as well as John Rhodes who joined HOK in 2014. Christopher Lamberth is the director of Business Development for the new practice.
Interviewed for this story: Bill Helmuth, Brad Schrock, (314) 982-7778