The Beautiful Game: Big Projects Studio Tackles Stadium Design

A group of 14 students bundled up in coats, winter hats, and gloves stand on snow-covered rocks in front of a river. On the other side of the water are brick industrial buildings, smoke stacks, and a wind turbine.

The Spring 2026 Big Projects Studio traveled to Boston to visit the proposed future site of the New England Revolution's soccer stadium. Photo: Joyce Hwang

Kelly Sheldon April 13, 2026

On a Zoom review session with Sam Valentine, a planner for the City of Boston, Professor Joyce Hwang posed an unexpected—but very relevant—question. “Are there plants that are tolerant to beer?” Valentine, trained as a landscape architect, was reviewing the work of the UB School of Architecture and Planning’s Spring 2026 Big Projects Studio, and this year the students were tasked with designing a soccer stadium.

The studio, titled “The Beautiful Game,” took shape around one of the world’s biggest sporting events: the upcoming World Cup, which will be hosted this summer in stadiums across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. For Joyce Hwang—professor in the Department of Architecture and a self-described “huge soccer fan”—the timing couldn’t be better. This global tournament provided inspiration and a real-world framework for this year’s studio.

Another key influence came when Hwang learned that FIFA—international soccer’s governing body—had updated its stadium guidelines to prioritize sustainability. Stadium and arena construction has historically carried significant environmental costs, and she was eager for the students to study this new structure, which addresses carbon emissions, energy consumption, water usage, ecology and biodiversity, waste management, human rights and labor standards, and sustainability of the surrounding communities and cities. 

The field at Barcelon's's Spotify Camp Nou . Student research notes include "The renovation of Spotify Camp Nou reimagines FC Barcelona's historic stadium as a contemporary civic and cultural landmark. Rather than replacing the existing structure, the project buildings upon it, repserving the identity of the club while enhancing capacity to 105,000, comfort, and performance. The design positions the stadium as both a sporting icon and an everyday urban space integrated into the city driven by concepts of openness, transparency, and connection.".

The students conducted case studies to learn about the design behind notable stadiums worldwide.

Launched in 2024, the Big Projects Studio was created in partnership with professional architecture firms to give graduate students experience working at a scale they don’t often encounter in school. While academic work generally focuses on smaller buildings (e.g., community centers, museums, single-family houses), professional firms recognize the value of exposing students to the complexity of large, multifaceted projects before they enter the workforce.

Gensler, which has sponsored all three iterations of the Big Projects Studio, once again provided generous support this year, including extensive staff involvement. As the concept for this studio took shape, Hwang met with Erkin Özay, chair and associate professor in the Department of Architecture, and Eric Brill (BA END ‘92), UB alumnus and studio director in Gensler’s New York City office, to refine the vision and determine how best to bring it to life.

Throughout the semester, Brill and Cory Kessler, UB alumnus (BPS ’98) and senior design associate at Gensler, have taken the time to meet weekly with the students. This regularity, Hwang says, serves to simulate professional practice. “The added pressure of those weekly meetings is helping them to understand how to speak about their process in a succinct and clear way,” Hwang explained. “And it approximates what I’ve experienced in professional firms, working toward deadlines.”

The studio has also benefitted from the expertise of Steve Chung, Gensler’s design director and sports leader in Los Angeles. Chung has worked on prominent venues including Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, BMO Stadium for the Los Angeles Football Club, and San Diego State University’s new 35,000-seat football stadium. A friend of Hwang’s from their undergraduate days at Cornell, Chung helped shape the studio and provided the students with deep insight into the process of stadium design.

This semester’s studio brought together a diverse group of 13 master of architecture students. About half are avid soccer fans like Hwang, while others were drawn in by the chance to collaborate with a high-profile firm like Gensler or by the studio’s strong focus on biodiversity and sustainability. Their central task was to design a new soccer stadium for the New England Revolution, Boston’s Major League Soccer team, on a site that’s currently under consideration for that purpose. 

A research slide featuring ecological information, plants that are native to the Boston area, including photos of swamp milkweed, joe pye weed, northern arrowwood, sweet pepperbush, blue vervain, red osier dogwood, eastern cottonwood, and American elm.

Collaborative research on the Boston site provided the students with the kind of wholistic understanding necessary to create an informed design that reflects the history, culture, and needs of that place.

After completing case studies of stadiums worldwide, the students traveled to Boston in late January to visit the proposed site firsthand. Located on the Mystic River in Everett, north of downtown Boston, the site of the former Mystic Generating Station is an industrial waterfront property. In contrast, the group also toured Boston’s nearby redeveloped waterfront to see how that space has already been adapted to accommodate sea-level rise and other environmental considerations. They also visited the Harvard Graduate School of Design and MIT, where student volunteers led campus architectural tours.

The trip served as both a valuable bonding experience and a critical learning opportunity. “Seeing the actual conditions gives them an embodied understanding,” Hwang explained. “How you arrive and leave the site, where the nearest subway station is, what else is in the area.” The group also faced the challenge of visiting during some of the coldest temperatures this winter. “Students often design for the optimal condition. Every rendering is sunny and green, but an architect has to consider the worst weather as well.”

Back in the studio, the students collaborated on research into the site’s history, demography, ecology, architectural identity, zoning, and infrastructure, resulting in the kind of comprehensive understanding that’s vital in developing an informed design. At Chung’s suggestion, each student also developed a persona representing the fan they were designing for—an 18-year-old Brazilian immigrant seeking community, a centenarian who remembers listening to the 1930 World Cup on the radio, a blue-collar Boston sports fan eager for a stadium that reflects the city’s grit and pride.

A square wooden board with wood placed on top to show elevation, foam cutouts in the shape of existing buildings, and a model of the potential new stadium.

Returning to the studio after the Boston trip, the students created a model of the site. Photo: Kelly Sheldon

For the final project, each student is designing a stadium for the New England Revolution that channels the spirit of their chosen fan. Early in the semester, Chung emphasized an important professional reality: stadiums are designed by teams of dozens, not individuals. With that in mind, the students are focusing on the aspects of the project that resonate most with them—such as structure, urban design, sustainability, or biodiversity—while still integrating all required elements. There are a wide range of considerations to think about, including parking, human traffic flow, proximity to the river and associated flooding concerns, integration of landscaping, façade design and how it fits with the surrounding neighborhood and structures, and other potential uses for the space.

During the April 8 review session, Valentine generously offered valuable feedback, anchored in his experience working in the City of Boston’s urban design division, to help the students refine their projects. This included suggestions such as enhancing surface parking lots with trees and other landscaping, softening coastline edges to better echo the stadium’s curved design, being realistic about waterway regulations, and accounting for the unavoidable noise exposure that comes with incorporating residential units. He even had a thoughtful response to Hwang’s landscape question—any plants that are tolerant to saltwater may also be “beer resistant” and well suited for tailgating areas.

A shared digital whiteboard shows four groups of small squares, each containing elements of students' projects, including sketches, renderings, models, and photos.

The studio used Miro as a collaborative digital tool for sharing their work with Gensler partners and each other. 

Final reviews will take place at Gensler’s Midtown Manhattan office, where the students will present their work to Gensler architects, UB alumni, and other professionals, giving them one more close look at how large-scale design projects unfold in professional practice.

Hwang hopes students walk away from the studio with several lasting lessons. For the sports fans, the project proves that personal passions can meaningfully shape professional work. For everyone involved, it marks their first experience designing at such a massive scale. This project is also unique in its complexity, evident through the copious amount of research necessary to create a fully informed design. “I think it can be hard for students to address all of that,” Hwang reflected. “But I hope these are skills that they can take with them to their next job or to wherever they go.”