Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It was nearly a month ago when a deal was agreed upon by the Buffalo Bills, Erie County, New York State and the National Football League that will see the construction of a new stadium in Orchard Park, replacing the current facility - Highmark Stadium - that has been the home of the team since 1973.
While there's still a number of documents and other agreements that must be handled and finalized before any shovels hit the ground, the work is already underway to have a plan in place for the start of construction some time in the coming months.
A lot of the process starts with the design and development of the new facility. What will it look like? Where will it be plotted? What features will make the stadium unique from other stadiums in the NFL?
For that part of this process, the Bills have hired a familiar name in the design world and in Western New York: Populous
"It's hard to stay calm, but actually tell you how excited we are for this opportunity to work for the Buffalo Bills and for the City of Buffalo, as well," said Scott Radecic, Senior Principal at Populous and one of the leaders of the NFL marketplace.
Populous is a design firm that is widely-regarded around the world with more than 700 staff members in 18 offices around the world. The company happens to be the largest design firm in the world that's dedicated to designing sports and entertainment facilities.
"Populous is a global design practice, and we design experiences. Those experiences, over the past three or four decades, have been basically large-scale sports and entertainment venues, and it's branched out to be much more than that," said fellow Senior Principal at Populous and one of the NFL marketplace leaders, Jonathan Mallie. "When we say we design the places where people love to be together and places that draw people together, we mean it. Especially in a time coming out of a pandemic, where people really crave the interest to be together, this is a unique time. It's a unique time in the history of our practice. How we've learned to manage through the pandemic and leverage technology, draw ourselves closer together and work differently and work smarter. This is just a really exciting time to be developing the design for a stadium for a city and for a team that's thinking in the very same way."
"What we do every day is work on projects like this. Projects that transform communities, projects that transform teams, projects that take teams from one place to another, both kind of in the success they can have on a field and the ways they can just make an impact in their communities. We don't take that like lightly at all," added Radecic.
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When it comes to Populous' role with the construction of the new Bills stadium, they will be the lead designer of the "football-first" facility with their architectural services. But it doesn't stop there, as Radecic, Mallie and their team will also work with their landscape architects, urban planners and interior designers to bring a one-of-a-kind experience for Bills fans outside and inside of the new stadium.
"We also have a large team of consultants, engineers of all kinds - structural, mechanical, electrical plumbing, technology. We also do some work in-house, in terms of experiential design - wayfinding, branding, sponsorship. There's several aspects to what we do," Mallie said. "Then independently, the construction team will build the project, and we work hand-in-hand with them delivering the next level of design information and the next level of design information until they build it on site. We work throughout the construction process to monitor that construction, on behalf of the owner."
As previously mentioned, Populous is a familiar name to not only the Bills, but also Pegula Sports and Entertainment. Radecic has been on the team that has been involved in working with the Bills for more than 10 years.
"We were selected to do the stadium Master Plan that looked long-term back when Mr. [Ralph] Wilson still owned the team, and then we were hired by that ownership group to go ahead and implement the improvements to the stadium and the training facility," Radecic said. "Since that time, once the Pegulas purchased the team, we've been able to do multiple projects with them at the stadium. The club renovations, a series of renovations and expansions inside of the training facility, and then also the study that happened a few years ago to investigate, what is the long-term solution? Is it a renovation to Highmark? Is it a new stadium? If it was the new stadium, where might the various locations for that be?"
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On top of the work that Radecic has done with the Bills, he was also part of the team that helped design and work on the construction of Harborcenter across from KeyBank Center in Downtown Buffalo.
"We've even done some work inside the arena, studying long-term renovations. And also a few years ago, we did some design work that allowed them to, kind of, upgrade their corporate offices inside of the arena, as well," Radecic added. "We've had a host of projects that we've done over the last 10-11 years with the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres and the ownership of the team. And I'll tell you what, we think very highly; we love working with the team, we love the people that are part of it, and we love the impact that the projects can have within the community."
For many Bills fans, the name Scott Radecic should sound familiar.
The native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania played a total of 12 seasons in the National Football League at linebacker, three of which in Orchard Park with the Bills from 1987-89. He was a former second round pick of the Kansas City Chiefs in the 1984 NFL Draft out of Penn State University, where he got his degree in architectural engineering.
While Radecic wasn't quite sure how he was planning to use his degree after his pro football career, he says his interest was peaked during his early years in the NFL with the Chiefs.
"At the time, the President of team, Jack Steadman showed me, he said, 'Hey, you're an architectural engineering guy. I think you might be interested in seeing this.' And it was our company, Populous - under its former name, HOK Sport Venue and Event - and it was a concept for a rolling roof over the Jackson County Sports Complex that would cover Arrowhead Stadium and Kauffman Stadium. That kind of was something that stuck with me," Radecic recalled. "A few years later, after I left Buffalo and I playing for the Indianapolis Colts, I started to think about what my career after football might be. I called Jack, I asked him again to tell me the name of that company and who I should call there, and I called them. They were happy to bring me in for an interview, and they gave me a part time job. So for my last five years in the NFL, I worked in the offseasons for our company, and the leadership of the company started to introduce me into the world of stadium architecture and what that meant.
"When I retired in '97 from the NFL after a 12-year career, I started full time as a project manager. And now here I am in Year 31. I [have] to give some credit to Jack Steadman for introducing me to this company here back in 1984."
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Since then, Radecic has had the privilege of exploring the world and having a direct role in developing stadiums and sports facility projects for teams. However, he says having the opportunity to now work for one of his former teams that he played for is going to be a really unique experience.
"It takes something that is always professional and adds this layer of personal on top of the professional," Radecic admitted. "We work with clients that we become friends with and have personal relationships with because of the length of time that we work together. I mean, the project durations are long. From the time somebody has an idea, to the time you work through concepts until the time you get it constructed. These processes can take many, many, many years, and you develop really great relationships.
"We have had the privilege of working for the Buffalo Bills for the last 10 years, and also working with Pegula Sports and Entertainment on projects like LECOM Harborcenter, and also some of the other work that we've done with them at the AD PRO Sports Training Center. There has been familiarity both in Buffalo and with that organization, and we just think the world of Kim and Terry [Pegula] and the Buffalo Bills."
While Radecic certainly has that familiarity with Western New York in his time spent with the Bills. Mallie is no stranger to the area during his time working with Radecic and at Populous. He says he has come to learn about the region and just how much the Bills mean to the local community.
"Over the past few years now, [it's] just witnessing and understanding the deep passion and fandom that exists in Buffalo," Mallie explained. "You have a fan base and a community that loves their team, and you have an ownership group that wants to do everything they possibly can for the team and for the fans. When we come across that kind of mix, it propels us. It's incredibly exciting to work with a group that's that focused on people. We design places that draw people together, and it seems to be lockstep with the ownership group's mission and what they're setting out to do."
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More to come from our conversation with Radecic and Mallie of Populous in the coming days. You can listen to Part 1 in the player below: