Maria Sharapova and Dan Meis join forces to design boutique sport and fitness facilities

– Dan Meis
Tennis star Maria Sharapova has joined forces with US sports architect Dan Meis to start a new design venture creating “inspirational” health, fitness, sporting and wellness facilities for the hospitality sector.
Inspired, in part, by hotelier Ian Schrager’s boutique hotel revolution, the pair are already in talks to create branded experience-led training venues for hotels, resorts and sports clubs that will help budding and professional athletes reach their peak performance.
They will provide design services, operational consultation and licensing advice for a wide range of facilities – from large-scale tennis resorts to individual hotel fitness rooms and spas focused on well-being and recovery from injury.
“The concept all goes back to an idea I had a few years ago,” Meis told CLAD. “And that is that while sports architects are really good at thinking about how sports venues affect the fan experience, we don't always think a lot about the players' perspectives on the venues.
“At one point I spoke to Andrew Luck, a star NFL quarterback who trained as an architect at Stanford, because I was interested in meeting someone with an architectural background who is also a world-class athlete, and we talked about collaborating someday.
“Later, I was following Maria on social media and the idea came back to me, because I saw she had a really strong sense of design and ideas about architecture, and I reached out to collaborate.
“From the start, she talked about how she had grown up playing tennis since childhood, but always found that the training places where young players spend so much of their lives aren’t particularly inspirational. So that became our starting point.”
Meis said that the duo are considering what inspires an athlete to train and become world-class, “and how architecture should play a role in that – the same way a university inspires a student or a studio inspires an artist.”
He compared the approach to the one successfully adopted by Schrager in the 1980s when introduced the world to the boutique hotel lifestyle with his Morgans brand.
“When he created that wave of boutique hotels, he really changed that industry,” Meis said. “It was about curating experiences – from the uniforms of the staff to the stationery, the music, the smells. That was an aspect Maria is really excited about. This is not just architecture, it’s everything you feel and touch.
“At the moment, the fitness centre in the average hotel tends to be a leftover space they just put some equipment in as almost an afterthought. We want to change all that. We’ll use integrated landscapes and a lot of natural materials to communicate a green healthy lifestyle.
“While it’s not rocket science – there are certainly health and wellness clubs that have figured this out – we think we can bring another level of design perspective to it.”
Meis revealed the pair are already in talks with potential partners and hope to have “one or two” projects underway by the end of this year.
“We’ve been proactive in approaching people. Each project will be a little different depending on the owner, operator and location. We want to create partnerships with hotels, resorts, country clubs, you name it. It’s a pretty broad market – both luxury properties and less so – and goes way beyond only tennis.”
The collaboration is tentatively called Sharapova/MEIS, but the architect said it could be renamed ‘Unstoppable’ after Sharapova’s recently-published autobiography.
Sharapova has competed on the WTA tour since 2001 and has been ranked world No 1 on several occasions, winning a career Grand Slam in the process.
Meis, who helped design the Staples Center in LA, is currently working on high-profile football stadiums in three different countries, for AS Roma, Everton FC and FC Cincinnati.
Maria Sharapova Dan Meis Ian Schrager Sharapova/MEIS





'We're embracing the future of English football without forgetting the past': Architect Dan Meis on designing a new home for Everton FC
FC Cincinnati aims for MLS inclusion with Meis-designed stadium
AS Roma strikes deal with mayor to build new stadium


James Corner Field Operations creates Highline for London

Esbjerg’s landmark maritime center, designed by WERK Arkitekter and Snøhetta, opens to the public

SEVEN to open world’s first indoor Discovery Adventures centres in Saudi Arabia

Fun and fear drive new Universal attraction concepts for Texas and Las Vegas

Voelker Gray Design creates 10-acre hot springs wellness haven for Atlanta

AIDarchitecten create healing spa for Antwerp's Botanic Sanctuary

Hollaway Studio's Seahive would bring blue health to South-East England

SEVEN to invest US$13bn in developing entertainment destinations across Saudi Arabia

World Spa’s expansive 50,000sq ft urban bathhouse and wellness club opens in Brooklyn

Floating Salmon Eye visitor attraction by Kvorning Design highlights sustainable aquaculture

White Arkitekter's Wood Hotel in Skellefteå Swedish Lapland is climate positive and made from local timber

Nohlab's 'Everything' installation among Noor Riyadh festival highlights

Bob Iger's return to Disney sparks major restructuring focused on creativity and storytelling

Therme Group plans US$200m urban wellbeing resort in South Korea

Digital art installation in Nanjing helps the public keep an eye on exoplanets

First glimpses revealed of flagship Blue Zones Centre in Miami

Warner Bros. and Infinite Reality launch metaverse experiences for live sports fans

Storyland Studios' Nigeria's film city project will break ground in Q1 2023

Canyon Ranch preps for major expansion with new destinations in Austin, Fort Worth and Houston

WilkinsonEyre-designed Battersea Power Station development opens as leisure district following £9bn redevelopment

Healthy cities conference to discuss diversity and inclusivity in urban planning and design

Foster and Partners reveal design for sustainable marine life centre on the Red Sea

Anaheim's US$4bn ocV!BE project approved by planners

Construction marches ahead for Saudi giga-projects Amaala and The Red Sea

HBG Design behind Michigan’s six-storey Aquadome inspired by the sun’s path across the sky

Seventh International Museum Construction Congress to be held in Norway this year

The 'world's most anticipated museum' to finally open this year

Nike's Serena Williams Building, designed by Skylab, follows the concept of flow

Saudi Arabia's Neom mega-development to include 100-mile long 'horizontal skyscraper city'
