Job has involved turning 1848-built dockyard into 53,000-seat stadium
The first test event at Everton’s new Bramley Moore Dock ground took place on Monday night as the club gears up to start next season in its new home.
The stadium has been designed by US architect Dan Meis and Pattern, which was bought by BDP in 2021. Meis left the practice he founded, known as Meis Architects, last May to join Aecom.
Jon-Scott Kohli, architect director at BDP Pattern, said: “Attending the first-ever match at Everton’s new stadium was an incredible milestone, both professionally and personally. Seeing it come alive for the first time was overwhelming. After years as a digital model and then a construction site, the stadium has finally become what it was designed to be – a home for the Everton family.
“Watching supporters gather in the plazas and concourses, experiencing the details we carefully developed, and seeing the building in action was a proud and exhilarating moment. From the warm glow of the handmade bricks to the steep rake of the South Stand, every element has been crafted to create an inclusive, intimate, and world-class footballing experience.
“This project is a testament to the vision of the Club and the dedication of hundreds of professionals and builders who have brought it to life. I have no doubt that the stadium will soon be recognised as one of the great stadiums in world football.”
Everton Stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock has been developed through a collaboration of specialist teams across multiple stages of design and construction. Meis Architects, led by Dan Meis, was appointed as design architect in 2016, overseeing the project from feasibility through to design development.
Meis Architects completed RIBA Stages 1–3, engaging with stakeholders, fans, and the public, before submitting a detailed planning application in December 2019 with support from BDP Pattern.
In early 2020, Laing O’Rourke was selected as the preferred contractor and subsequently appointed BDP Pattern as delivery architect, with Meis retained by the club as design guardian on the project. As Everton FC refined the design brief, BDP Pattern worked alongside Laing O’Rourke from 2020 to 2025, overseeing a revised RIBA Stage 3, an amended planning application, and RIBA Stages 4–6 to ensure the original design intent was maintained throughout construction.
Dan Meis joined AECOM in 2024 as leader of its Global Sports Design group.
Buro Happold provided engineering and building performance consultancy throughout the project. Planit-IE was responsible for the landscape and public realm design.
The project has involved transforming a dockyard constructed in 1848 into a football stadium with a seating capacity of 52,888.
The first challenge was constructing a stadium on top of water and to do this main contractor Laing O’Rourke brought in 480,000 cu m of sand from the Irish Sea by boat and gradually infilled the dockyard with it.
In preparation, fish were rescued and re-located to nearby water while to prevent the need for thousands of trips up and down the motorway by HGVs, Laing O’Rourke used boats, taking the sand from the seabed 20 miles out in the Irish Sea.
In all, construction took 178 weeks before handover six days before Christmas with the fit out phase expected to be complete by the middle of the year ahead of the new season starting in August.
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