"Important to have architecture be part of the NFL" says Peter Eisenman

The Peter Eisenman and Populous-designed State Farm Stadium, which is set to host Super Bowl 57 had the world's first retractable field and presented an innovative change from previous stadiums, say its designers.The 65,000-seat venue, which was called the University of Arizona Stadium when it opened in 2006, was designed by Eisenman and Populous and constructed by Hunt Construction Group."I think it's really important to have good architecture and to have architecture be part of the NFL," Eisenman told Dezeen."And I know a lot of people will watch the game and say wow, look at that stadium. When I go there, it's really exciting for me, because it's one of the designs that I really was interested in."Eisenman explained that the design of the stadium was originally supposed to be decided via a competition.However, after impressing the ownership with his knowledge of the game by listing the names of the Cardinal's offensive players during the 1949 season, Eisenman's studio was given the project.The original design approach was to get away from the classical bowl-style stadiums that were symmetrical and "like the Colosseum".The team approached a number of cities in Arizona to host the stadium and finally landed on Glendale, a suburb northeast of Phoenix."None of the big towns would take it," said Eisenman."So Glendale, which had nothing at the time, said 'we'll step up and finance to project' and it was really exciting.