Work has started on a £25m (US$37m, €33m) community and leisure centre in Harrow, North London. Planning was granted back in 2010 for the project, which seeks to create a 5,000sq m (53,820sq ft) centre, acting as a ‘cultural embassy’ for Harrow’s community. London and Barcelona-based Mangera Yvars Architects is the firm behind the project. The practice originally set out to provide a space where people of any faith could

Italian club AC Milan is considering proposals to leave its current San Siro stadium and build a new 48,000-capacity stadium in the city. The club has teamed up sports architects Arup – designers of Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena and the National (Bird's Nest) Stadium in Beijing – and revealed plans for a large-scale development in the Portello area of the city. As well as a new stadium, plans include a

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has announced finalised plans for a new cycle superhighway in the UK capital. After what Johnson called “one of the the biggest consultation exercises in Transport for London’s (TfL’s) history”, plans have been given the green light by the mayor, who has pledged £913m (€1,222m, US$1,386m) towards getting Londoners back on their bikes. The scheme will create Europe’s longest segregated urban cycle way through central

Launching in April, an online crowdfunding campaign is looking for £250,000 (US$383,425, €336,544) to make outdoor swimming in London’s Thames a reality. Plans for an outdoor swimming pool, known as the Thames Baths, have been in the works for a while. Originally designed for a competition “London As It Could Be Now” in early 2014, architecture practice Studio Octopi came up with the initial outline for the project. The practice,

Bill Hellmuth, president of global architecture practice HOK is “excited” by the firm’s recent re-entry into the sports sector. Speaking to Sports Management, Hellmuth said the acquisition of sports specialist 360 Architecture, which will form part of a new global practice called HOK Sports + Recreation + Entertainment, has “filled a void” in HOK’s operations. “It’s great to be back in sports,” he said. “It’s a piece of our practice

American football team the Atlanta Falcons has released details its new US$1.4bn (E1.2bn, £922m) 83,000-seat stadium, which will open in downtown Atlanta in 2017. The unique multi-use stadium features an eight-petal retractable roof – a first for any venue of this type – as well as the world’s largest 360 degree HD video screen, which will be viewable from every seat. Also included is an exterior 61,000sq ft (5,600sq m)

Global engineering and design company HOK is returning to sports facility design for the first time since 2008, after completing a deal to acquire Kansas City, US-based sports architects 360 Architecture. The deal is part of HOK’s strategy to expand its footprint in the sports sector and forms a central part of HOK’s new Sports + Recreation + Entertainment practice. Patrick MacLeamy, HOK’s chair and CEO, said: “We acquired 360

Castleford Tigers CEO Steve Gill has said the weather damage caused to Wheldon Road stadium last weekend highlights the club’s “great need” to find a new home. The Super League club was forced to close its Princess Street stand for Sunday's match against Bradford after a retaining wall collapsed. The 4,000-capacity stand will remain closed for Tigers’ next two pre-season games against Widnes and York. Gill said the ageing Wheldon

Scunthorpe United Football Club (SUFC) has submitted a planning application to the North Lincolnshire Council for a new £18m stadium located west of Scunthorpe. The 12,000-seater stadium is set to be developed as part of the mixed-use Lincolnshire Lakes project – which is spearheaded by Lucent Group and will include 3,500 new houses, a commercial park, a school and a transport hub. The designs and masterplan for the stadium have

West Ham United Football Club (WHU) will begin selling season tickets for the 2016-17 season – its first at the Olympic Stadium – this April. The club announced that the seat selection process for current season ticket holders will run from April 2015 to February 2016. Those who want to guarantee their seats at the 54,000-capacity arena for WHU’s first game in August 2016 will also have to commit to

Global facility management giant SMG, in partnership with Live Nation, has been named as the preferred bidder to operate the 12,000-seat Bristol Arena when it opens in 2017. The Bristol Arena, set become the UK’s largest indoor arena, will be located at an old oil depot site near the city’s Temple Meads Station and is expected to cost around £95m to build. A multi-use venue, the arena will be capable

The city of Vilnius in Lithuania is stepping up its push into the European ski market with the announcement it will build a new cultural/sports venue – the Vilnius Beacon – with design by Studio Libeskind. This is the first ski resort by the practice. The development is backed by the City of Vilnius, the State Trade Co and Start Vilnius Co, which took over responsibility for the location –

Danish architecture firm 3XN has revealed renderings of its designs for the new Olympic Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. 3XN was chosen to design the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) new base in April 2014 following an international competition. The practice fought off eleven other high-profile outfits to win the competition. These included London-based Amanda Levete Architects, New Yorkers OMA, Diller Scofidio and Renfro, to name a few. Called ‘Olympic Unity House’,

Swiss-based architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron is working on plans to increase the capacity of Chelsea Football Club’s Stamford Bridge ground in west London in partnership with London-based practice Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands. The club wants to expand from the current 41,837 seats, to a 60,000 seat capacity, following the recommendations of a feasibility study undertaken in June 2014. At the time, the club said: “The study will assess the

Damian Rogers Architecture, in partnership with Arup, has unveiled a concept for a beach and surf park for Melbourne’s Central Pier, Australia. The development would be based on a floating wave pool, with filtered water from Victoria Harbour, and a sandy beachfront. Offering surfers a chance to catch waves between 1-1.8m (3-6ft) high, the heated wave pool would be one of several attractions in the 16,000sq m (172,222sq ft) development.

Brazilian football club SE Palmeiras has taken delivery of its new 43,600-capacity Allianz Parque stadium in Sao Paolo. Designed by Brazilian architects Edo Rocha Arquiteturas, the venue has been described as “Latin America’s most modern multi-purpose event complex”. With 43,600 covered seats – in addition to the 178 corporate boxes with seating for more than 3,000 people during football games – the venue is also equipped to host concerts, mega

The District of Columbia Council has approved plans to build a new home for US-based Major League Soccer (MLS) club D.C. United. To be located in Buzzard Point, Washington D.C., the stadium will have a capacity between 20,000 and 25,000 and will become the 17th “soccer-specific stadium” in MLS. Designed by sports architects Populous, the District of Columbia Soccer Stadium is expected to open in 2017 and provide a major

A High Court judge has ruled that Northern Ireland’s environment minister Mark H Durkan acted “unlawfully” when he approved plans for a new 38,000-seat GAA stadium in the heart of Belfast. Mr Justice Horner said there had been failures in the environmental impact assessment of the £77m stadium and that the decision to grant planning permission was “irretrievably flawed”. The High Court ruling comes after a Belfast residents' group issued

Construction work has begun on the 60,000-capacity Perth Stadium in West Australia. Designed by a team consisting of Cox Architecture, design studio Hassell and architects HKS Sports and Entertainment Group, the multi-purpose stadium will form the centrepiece of a new sporting precinct at Perth’s Burswood district, located on the banks of the Swan River. The AU$820m (US$770m, €570m, £450m) venue – funded and owned by the Government of Western Australia

Major League Baseball (MLB) team Atlanta Braves has released new renderings of its planned SunTrust Park stadium in Cobb County, north of Atlanta, showing the mixed-use elements surrounding the venue. The new plans shed light on the number of restaurants, bars and retail outlets to be built on the site, while also show a hotel and office building towering beyond the 41,500-capacity venue. The properties will form an important revenue

Designs for a new MX$863m (US$60m, €48.5m, £38.3m) 13,000-seat baseball stadium to be home to the Los Diablos Rojos in Mexico City have been revealed by Chicago-based JAHN and Santa Fe-based ADG architects. The 70,000sq m (753,000sq ft) stadium, which resembles the team’s trident logo, has a roof composed of lightweight steel wrapped in PTFE textile material. According to JAHN, the roof will “become an iconic symbol for the great

An expansion of Liverpool Football Club’s Anfield Stadium is set to start this week after construction firm Carillion signed a £75m contract to carry out work on the main stand. The two parties yesterday (8 December) finalised the deal that will see designs by architecture practice KSS brought to fruition, increasing the capacity of the stadium to 54,000. Work to add 8,500 seats to the Main Stand – part of

Manchester City Football Club has today (8 December) opened the doors to the club’s new City Football Academy (CFA) – reported to have cost £200m (US$312m, €255m) – following a four-year project. The new facility in East Manchester – a stone’s throw from the club’s Etihad Stadium – forms a key part of plans to regenerate the former industrial wasteland. The two-year building phase was led by BAM Construction working

Sydney’s former Olympic Stadium is set for a AU$350m (US$292.8m, €237.8m, £186.7m) redevelopment, with plans including a full roof and pitch-side seating. As part of the proposals, the ANZ stadium’s capacity will remain above 80,000, though for smaller matches a high-tech lighting system will create a more intimate atmosphere. The designs also include a retractable roof, allowing the stadium to become weatherproof for certain sporting and entertainment events. Another aspect

Paris-based AWP architecture firm has won a competition, launched in June 2014, to design a new public space and hub along the River Tyne in Newcastle, UK. Malmo Quay, situated in the Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, will be a landmark and cycle hub. The site will provide new space for outdoor sports with a community hall, restaurants and cafés, community spaces, working areas, and an open air cinema – which

The cause of a fire that gutted a business involved in a bitter dispute with English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur FC remains unclear. The fire at the Archway Sheet Metal factory – in north London, UK – was detected in the early hours of Tuesday 25 November. The blaze destroyed most of the building before it was brought under control. Located just yards from Tottenham’s White Hart Lane stadium,

Architecture practice EFFEKT has won a competition to create an innovative new street sports and cultural facility in an old train depot in Esbjerg, Denmark. The project will transform a disused train engine depot in Esbjerg into a new destination for street sports, cultural creativity and the community. Realdania, a non-profit organisation, have set itself the task of creating three new cultural hubs filling some of the void left by