Dan Meis

Who is Dan Meis?

Dan Meis is an American architect based in Los Angeles best known for designing sports and entertainment facilities including LA’s STAPLES Center. His 25 years of experience began in Chicago with Helmut/Jahn and includes time at some of the most well-known sports architecture firms in addition to co-founding the sports and entertainment practice of NBBJ. Dan currently operates his own independent studio, MEIS, out of his office in Venice Beach, California.

While at Ellerbe Becket in 1992, Meis designed Europe's largest indoor arena, the Nynex Arena in Manchester, England. In 1995, Meis lead the design competition for the Nikken Sekkei and Ellerbe Becket team that won the $750 million Saitama Super Arena in Japan. Soon after winning the design competition, Meis left Ellerbe Becket to join established Seattle practice NBBJ, establishing NBBJ's sports division with Ron Turner. Meis and Turner designed sports, entertainment and convention facilities that were well-acclaimed including Staples Center in Los Angeles, the Dodge Theater in Phoenix, Miller Park in Milwaukee, Safeco Field in Seattle, Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia and Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati. Paul Brown Stadium was the first NFL facility to win an AIA design award. NBBJ's design for Los Angeles' Staples Center has been heralded as the "greatest arena ever built", and in 2001 he appeared in Time magazine as one of their "100 Innovators in the World of Sports". His work has twice been awarded the prestigious Business Week/Architectural Record Award, recognizing the value of design to a client's business, and he is the only architect twice recognized as one of Sports Business Journal's "40 under 40 Most Influential Sports Executives". Meis' work has been featured in numerous publications and he is a frequent lecturer at architectural schools across the US.