Gensler and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) could, if fully unleashed with no budgetary considerations, create baseball stadium renderings for the Athletics’ Las Vegas effort that would blow minds.

Gensler and BIG, whose team for the A’s project includes HNTB as the architect of record, are in the latter stages of a design competition to win the A’s $1.5 billion Las Vegas ballpark project. Whichever team the A’s pick — A’s President Dave Kaval expects the decision to be made in the second half of October — will produce a design created with significant input from contractors Mortenson and McCarthy and owners’ rep CAA ICON, all three of which, somewhat unusually, were hired before the architects.

The Mortenson/McCarthy joint venture and CAA ICON worked together to build Allegiant Stadium, the last major addition to Las Vegas’ growing collection of stadia, and those groups’ chemistry could help better keep costs in line, too.  

“There is an understanding of the local approval processes, permitting, the market there, labor availability, we can tailor some of the systems or materials used in the building that’s something advantageous based on the market, and there is a familiarity,” said CAA ICON Vice President Sam Bottoms, who worked on Allegiant Stadium and is now working on the A’s project. “These projects are multiyear projects, so you definitely build some relationships, and I think that helps inform and smooth out the process going forward.”

Click here to read the full article.