Eden Gardens is one of the largest and oldest cricket stadiums in the world and lies just 7 km from our office here in Kolkata. It is one of those stadiums that players grow up wanting to play in. I've been to 3 matches at the Eden and each one was an amazing experience, unfortunately the condition of the stadium does little to generate excitement. It's rundown, poorly maintained, and the patchwork of construction over the years has left the stadium looking like Architectural Meatloaf.

So it was with great pleasure that we read about a renovation project last year. We tried to get a meeting to discuss ideas we had and see what the opportunities might be for our office. No replies came, no phone calls were returned. Months passed and from time to time, we'd try again. Still nothing. Then I we read in the paper that two firms had presented: the team of VMS & Burt Hill was up against HOK Singapore. We assumed the case was shut and that the project was finally out of reach. Then late on Thursday night, our phone rang. It was the Cricket Association of Bengal. They wanted us to present. In 4 days.

So we got to work putting together a team that had the experience and talent to pull this off and we began piecing together a short presentation on the project and how we might approach it. As Monday evening rolled around we had finalized our team:

REX - New York City

OVE ARUP - Hong Kong Office

TOM LEADER STUDIO - Berkeley, California

SSID Consultants - Hyderabad

CSL International - Minneapolis, Minnesota

We presented to 30 or 40 people that evening and it seemed to be well received. They've asked for a complete proposal, which is now in the works from our end, and we expect sometime in early June the project will be awarded. They asked for a complete proposal - including cost/schedule for the components we're assuming they want to renvoate. We submitted this with a design concept and are now waiting. have learned that Burt Hill has been selected to do the project. Good luck to them, and I hope Kolkata gets a great project.

Published by Brook Louis Meier in design