EXCLUSIVE: Dan Meis speaks to ECHO Everton reporter Chris Beesley from inside his New York City office
As Everton’s magnificent Hill Dickinson Stadium prepares to open its doors, architect Dan Meis reveals that he’s loved Scousers’ comments about the project that his touched his heart the most – whether they have come from Blues or even Reds.
With his 52,769 capacity masterpiece on the banks of the Mersey set for its first sell-out against Roma next month, followed by inaugural Premier League fixture against Brighton & Hove Albion – two matches that he plans to attend – Meis accepted a request from the ECHO, reporting on Everton throughout their entire time in the USA for the Premier League Summer Series, for an exclusive interview in the Manhattan branch of his offices while the Blues were in New York City.
As you make your way around the floor space of this plush Third Avenue base, it’s a workplace like no other and is a veritable Aladdin’s Cave of models and images devoted to Everton’s future home and other potential ideas Meis had for the Blues over the years.
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It’s never just been about what Everton’s top brass had to say on his thoughts though, and as always on Merseyside, plenty on either side of Stanley Park have not been backwards in coming forwards to him with their opinions.
Meis told the ECHO: “The interaction with Evertonians was the surprise in all of this. The sort of light bulb moment that went off for me in the very early meetings was that I was very sceptical that Everton would hire an architect from America, let alone Los Angeles.
“It just didn’t seem that it was going to be easy for an outsider. But in fact, I think that became my superpower.
“I didn’t take anything for granted. When I talked to Robert Elstone (the then chief executive) initially about the history of the club, there were a lot of great points like: ‘We’re not London, we’re not Tottenham, it’s not about fancy, it’s about this cauldron of energy and capturing the magic of Goodison.’
“That is where the lightbulb went off for me and I thought: ‘This is not about a building, it’s about an experience.’ It’s an experience that covers generations of memory and the history of things that have happened at Goodison and how do we capture that?
“In some ways, the architecture wasn’t as important to me, as really understanding what this fanbase was. So, we just dug in, and did a lot of research and immersed ourselves in that notion of what I really did believe that Everton are a little bit different.
“It wasn’t some flashy international brand necessarily, it was a very homegrown, home important community-based brand and it was all real. It wasn’t just lip service or branding, it really was who this club was.
“Then I discovered, and part of it was the timing of social media, it might have been accidental, I don’t know how it happened in the beginning, and as soon as people knew I was in this mix, there became this dialogue with fans. All of a sudden, I had 70,000 collaborators.
“That was the first time that’s ever happened. And it wasn’t always rosy.
“There were times when there was some real pushback about how big the building should be, where the building should be and the shape of the building. I think what we all kind of discovered, we didn’t all have to agree about everything, but the fans thought that they really did have an impact and they did.
“They certainly influenced my thinking and I think they influenced the club’s thinking and I think the club recognised this was an opportunity to feel involved in the design of it. That really was unique, I don’t think we’ve seen anything like that – not just us but across the profession.”
With a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye as he speaks, Meis adds: “It’s not a shy fanbase. They’re perfectly willing to jump in and share their experience.
“I’ve often said this to clubs, not just limited to the Premier League or English football. Owners in general, they may think they own the team, but in reality, there is a whole bunch of fans who feel like they own the team.
“I think the best clubs really recognise that. They’re custodians more than they really are owners, if you can really build that bond.
“One of the reasons it’s so important is that it’s not just for the owners to be popular, how the fans react to the club so affects the play on the pitch. I think there’s a book in there.”
But while Evertonians have been overwhelmingly positive towards the project that will seemingly define Meis’ career in many ways, despite the obvious benefits for everyone in the Liverpool City Region from the largest addition to the waterfront since the construction of the Three Graces – also on former docks – significant elements of the neighbours’ fanbase have been repeated naysayers, with the barbs going from “it will never get built,” to “it will be the best stadium in the Championship.”
Meis and the Blues – who will kick off a record 123rd season in the top flight at Hill Dickinson Stadium – have had the last laugh on both scores but unlike some who have trolled his work, he remains magnanimous to insist he enjoyed the discourse.
He said: “Everton and Liverpool are also very different as clubs. It’s interesting as because of what I do, I have respect for the sport in general and clubs in general.
“I try not to pick favourites but obviously the buildings that I’ve worked on and the clubs that I’ve worked with in all sports, you do become a fan, you become part of it – but not like this.
“With this, you almost had to become part of the family to really understand the difference between Everton and Liverpool. In some ways, what I tried to do with the fans a lot was remind them that you do have this incredible history.
“It’s interesting because so often in the derby, Everton would play up because it’s Liverpool. That’s another reminder that the tension between the clubs is really critical.
“The great thing about the new building is that we will see an evolution now. I think it’s going to be great for the club, it’s going to provide a home pitch advantage, and I think all those rivalries will play out at another level.”
Meis added: “Obviously there was a lot of scepticism. Some of the favourite memes, there was the traffic cone that was on the site.
“I loved watching all that stuff. There are no guarantees with these projects.
“This is not unique to Everton. I worked on a stadium in Rome for years and then it just evaporated after tons of investment.
“When you think of all the challenges of getting the stadium built: We had Covid, we had the Russia-Ukraine situation; we had a lot of upheaval in the club itself and problems in the boardroom and the threat of being relegated.
“I kind of really appreciated that there was this little bit of scepticism and this little bit of pushback. But for all the kind of tribal rivalry, I think there is genuine respect.
“Everton committed and they committed to a very difficult site. It wasn’t the easiest thing for them to do.
“They could have saved a lot of money and built it somewhere else. This was not only a decision that was good for the club, it was good for the city, for the region – everybody will benefit from this in the long run.”
As Meis awaits his big day – almost like a proud father, ready to show off his baby to the world – he ponders just what will come next for him given how much of his heart and soul he has put into his work with Everton.
He said: “It’s really an interesting challenge because I’ve been designing stadiums for something like 35 years. I’ve had incredible opportunities from being able to do the Staples Center in my hometown where my son was growing up, there was something really special about that in L.A. with the Lakers with Kobe (Bryant) and Shaq (O’Neal).
“There were projects in Japan that were technically unbelievable compared to anything I could have ever imagined before. But I’ve never had a project that so got in my blood, the way this did.
“I think it was something that I recognised pretty early. It was an opportunity that wasn’t just a building anymore.
“How do you really become part of a fanbase and a community and reimagine something like Goodison that had been around for over 100 years? It was a home, so it wasn’t really about architecture in terms of the stadium, it was about taking that experience forwards.
“There’s still a bit of trepidation over how people feel about it when it’s fully open. I want to see it provide a really incredible advantage to the club – on the pitch obviously – but then at some point, I have to move on and try and find something like it, and it’s going to be difficult.”
Meis added: “There’s a lot going on in the UK in particular. Some of them I can talk about, and some of them I can’t.
“It’s interesting because we’re kind of in this period after Tottenham where Everton really is the only new build that we’ve seen in the last few years. It’s an interesting model I think because it’s a club that has an incredible history and it has a unique fanbase.
“It’s not like some of the other cities. But I think that both the challenge of building in a dock, and the other challenges we went through with Covid and losing the sponsorship with some of the issues on the club side, it really is a great success story, just realising it and hopefully it will influence some of the clubs that are looking to build.”
- Watch out for the full version of Chris Beesley’s exclusive interview from Dan Meis’ office in a special edition of the ECHO’s Royal Blue podcast.
