Architect Dan Meis’ Global Ambitions

By ELIZABETH MARCELLINO Palisadian-Post Contributor Dan Meis has big ambitions. He wants to build an architectural firm that has the kind of impact on Los Angeles that Welton Becket had with iconic designs like the Capitol Records building, Pan-Pacific Auditorium and the Music Center, and also to foster the kind of design that leaves a legacy in the way that Skidmore, Owings and Merrill’s work reshaped Chicago. Such ambitions that might seem far beyond the scope of a 15-person team tucked away in a quiet, loft-like office on Helms Avenue in Culver City, except that Meis, FAIA, has just partnered with Aedas, the fourth-largest architectural firm in the world, with 2,200 architects in Hong Kong, New York, London, Beijing, Abu Dhabi, Moscow and 29 other cities. Aedas (from the Greek ‘to build’) has an impressively broad and sophisticated portfolio of office, retail, residential, hotel and mixed-use development projects around the globe. Some of the firm’s most eye-catching new work is in the Middle East, including one of the world’s tallest condominium towers, Ocean Heights I, in Dubai. What excites Meis about his new partners is the influence of their international perspective. ‘I’ve always been intrigued by the power of a global firm,’ says Meis, a Pacific Palisades resident. ‘I went to [an Aedas] retreat in Vietnam recently and just about every country was represented. That gives you a very different perspective on the work.’ While its scale presents opportunities Meis can’t easily create in a boutique firm, the Aedas culture also offers a comfortable fit with Meis’ own team. Aedas is what Meis calls a ‘first generation’ firm. He pegs the average age of its professionals as mid-30’s (he’s 46), as unusually young for a group of its size. The ethos is informal and decentralized while its commitment to doing large-scale, world-class work is intense. For a man whose dog, Molly, typically joins him in the office, informality is important and Meis’ passionate connection to his work is clear as he speaks. Meis, who has built a powerful franchise in the design of sports arenas and ‘experiential environments,’ was named as one of the top 100 innovators in his field by Time magazine in 2001 and twice named one of Sports Business Journal’s ’40 Under 40′ most influential people in the world of sports. He designed Staples Center, Seattle’s SafeCo Field, Paul Brown Stadium in Cinncinnati and Saitama Super Arena in Japan. His latest effort is the design of the proposed Los Angeles NFL Stadium and he sees an opportunity in stadium design to innovate and affect cities in a unique way. ‘I wasn’t a huge sports freak, but I was intrigued by the fact that these buildings have a big impact on the cities that they’re in because people are very passionate about them,’ Meis says. ‘Everyone might recognize the world’s tallest building, but they’re not very passionate about it–but the stadium where their team plays, they feel like they own that building.’ Though he’s had a design role throughout his 25-year career and graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of Illinois, Meis sometimes sounds more like a businessman than a creative type as he talks about strategies for growing Aedas’ footprint on the West Coast. He admits to being thrown out of one of his college architecture classes for reading The Wall Street Journal. But Meis views architecture as neither purely art nor purely product, but an amalgam of both. He agrees that an architect must fight for his vision. He relates a story about Edward Roski, the billionaire developer of Staples Center and part owner of both the Lakers and Kings. Traditionally, stadium configuration follows the oval of seats ringing the floor or field, resulting in curved ends and two straight sides; related structural elements and ancillary uses are bolted onto those sides. But Meis designed a more dynamic, action-oriented form that incorporated the theater and entertainment space of Staples Center into the circulation of the building; his drawings called for an expansive, circular structure. ‘Roski kept telling me, ‘Get those curves out of the building ‘ we’re not going to build a round building.’ The [finished] building not only has curves but it leans and curves,’ says Meis, smiling. But Meis stresses that it’s part of the final design because his client ultimately saw the value in it. He says he realized early on in his career ‘that the client was buying a product, and you don’t get to build the building unless you can sell them that product.’ He concedes that he’s more comfortable than many of his peers with this marriage of art and commerce. What does he hope for out of his ‘marriage’ to Aedas? The partnership will take a two-pronged approach, both ‘extending our franchise in experiential design’ internationally and ‘building a strong Los Angeles practice,’ Meis says. He hopes to be able to overcome the dichotomy facing most architecture firms by retaining the innovation power of a boutique while still scaling the business to include an extensive array of clients, building types and geographies. Any partnership brings challenges, but Meis is clearly enjoying the honeymoon phase of this relationship. One of the most interesting opportunities he sees is a focus on sustainability. He believes that the constraints imposed by the need to create environmentally conscious architectural solutions will drive innovation. ‘Truly great architecture needs boundaries, whether those boundaries are monetary or environmental,’ Meis says. ‘In Europe you see a much more sophisticated approach to sustainability. At our Vietnam retreat, I was on a bit of a soapbox in terms of how important sustainability must become [to Aedas’ practice] and one of the Europeans leaned over and whispered in my ear ‘You [bleeping] Americans, you didn’t invent sustainability!” Meis laughs. It seems to be exactly this kind of reality check and broader world view that he values in his new alliance. So what about the NFL Stadium? While the rest of Los Angeles watches a classic championship duall between the Lakers and Celtics at Staples Center this week, Meis is working on schematic designs for Roski’s proposed stadium in the City of Industry. The Web site for the project envisions an $800-million development including the arena plus 800,000 square feet of retail space and 160,000 square feet of restaurants. Meis says his firm is ‘advancing design that cuts a significant amount of dollars out of the project,’ and the schematic designs will allow for precise pricing for purposes of assembling a financing package. Roski, blocked by the Los Angeles County Supervisors in his original quest for hundreds of millions in tax subsidies, was subsequently quoted by the Daily Breeze as saying that the project requires ‘absolutely no taxpayer dollars.’ How about the small matter of a football franchise? Los Angeles has been without one since both the Rams and the Raiders left town in 1995. Speculation has been active ever since, but Los Angeles, the second largest media market in the country, remains without a roster of NFL players. In public statements, Roski has focused on the likelihood of relocating an existing franchise rather than bringing in an expansion team and has said that offering a team the certainty of a new stadium will be the key to beginning serious negotiations. While others negotiate the political and business logistics, Meis’ team will keep busy working out the design details. Meanshile, what else would Meis like to be working on? ‘I’d love to do a really interesting house,’ he says. ‘[With a house,] the client is passionate and gets into every detail. It also offers the opportunity to work in a small scale, which would bookend the practice.’ His own house in the Marquez neighborhood was built in the 1950s. He lives here with his wife, Brandie, 14-year-old son, Max, who will start at Windward School in the fall, and 6-month-old daughter Sofia, and appreciates the small-town feel of the Village. Who knows whether Meis will reach the full range of his ambition to build a firm forever identified with the architecture of Los Angeles? But whatever he does, he’ll be passionate in pursuit of his vision. It’ll be fun to watch and see what he’s able to dream up next.