By Frank Andr茅, AIA, LEED AP

In recent decades, professional sports development has shifted toward transforming underutilized land around stadiums into mixed-use entertainment districts. Projects like Ballpark Village in St. Louis and the Half Street Corridor in Washington illustrate how these developments extend the fan experience beyond game day while creating connected, year-round neighborhoods. By integrating retail, hospitality, residential and event programming, they generate sustained revenue and strengthen ties to the surrounding urban fabric.

Universities, on the other hand, have traditionally relied on more limited revenue streams: ticket sales, concessions, sponsorships and media rights concentrated around game day. With the introduction of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) rules, which now direct a share of revenue to athletes, institutions face increasing pressure to diversify income. In response, many are turning to their own athletic districts, adapting strategies pioneered in professional sports development.

The Possibilities in Public-Private Partnerships

A key lesson lies in deal structure. Public universities often control significant land holdings around stadiums and benefit from large, loyal fan bases. However, they typically lack both the capital and the specialized development expertise to fully realize these assets. Through public-private partnerships (P3), institutions partner with developers that are experienced in entertainment retail, hospitality, housing and event venues. These P3 models allow universities to leverage long-term ground leases and brand value while shifting development risk and capital investment to private partners.

Purposeful Programming

While university-anchored districts share core principles with their professional counterparts, critical differences in governance, funding, and campus context ultimately shape how these environments are designed and programmed.

Designing successful university-anchored sports districts begins with a careful balance of programming. Unlike professional baseball, where teams host more than 80 home games a season, college football programs typically play just six or seven home games. The result is fewer peak moments and less consistent spillover into surrounding neighborhoods. These districts must therefore operate as destinations in their own right; active year-round, not just on game day.

Flexibility is key. Restaurants, for example, often carry subtle university branding but must stand on their own with distinctive concepts that appeal to both fans and locals. Outdoor spaces are equally adaptable: a central plaza might function as a casual recreation space or outdoor dining during the week but transform into a concert venue or event hub on game days and beyond. Residential and hospitality components also take on a unique role, with premium units oriented toward stadium views and VIP game-day access. Condominiums designed for dedicated fans and super-boosters can generate significant upfront capital, while also extending dwell time and deepening engagement with the district.

These dynamics are amplified at major programs, particularly among the Power Four conferences, where football crowds can exceed 100,000 attendees. The scale of these fan bases reinforces the need for environments that can expand and contract seamlessly, accommodating surges in activity while remaining vibrant at smaller scales.

Sponsorship and branding strategies also diverge from the professional model. While large-scale signage and digital media are central to revenue generation in pro sports districts, universities often take a more restrained approach. Instead, activation is driven through programming: youth camps, recruiting events, academic conferences, and media production tied to NIL initiatives and other creative event programming all contribute to a steady cadence of use. These layers of activity create a different kind of energy 鈥� less overtly commercial, but equally vital.

Developing a Design Identity

From a design perspective, the challenge is both familiar and highly specific. Many of these sites lack historic context, sitting adjacent to large, inward-focused stadiums. At the same time, they are shaped by overlapping campus and municipal guidelines and must serve a wide spectrum of users 鈥� from students and faculty to alumni, donors and local residents. Successful solutions balance these demands while grounding the project in authentic institutional and regional identity.

At the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, a site just south of Neyland Stadium presented a telling example. While the stadium dominates the immediate context, the site also opens to sweeping views of the Tennessee River to the south. The design response drew from campus design standards 鈥� materials, proportions and detailing 鈥� while referencing the industrial and mercantile heritage that once lined the riverfront. This dual approach anchored the development in both university tradition and local history, allowing taller elements, such as a condotel tower, to adopt a more contemporary expression while remaining visually tied to a lower-scale, contextually rooted base.

Ultimately, these districts succeed when design storytelling is embedded at every level. Architecture, interiors, landscape, branding, and programming must all work together to reflect the traditions, rituals and character of the school, while resonating with the broader region. Given the diversity of users, from high-end condominium owners to fans gathering before and after the game, this narrative must be both cohesive and flexible. Achieving that balance requires close collaboration across disciplines, ensuring that the district evolves into a place that feels authentic, active and enduring well beyond the stadium gates.

Frank Andr茅, AIA, LEED AP, is Principal and Design Leader at HCM.

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When applied to design the word 鈥渢rend鈥� can unintentionally imply a temporary nature, a fashion of the moment likely to be replaced as soon as the next idea shows up. However, it鈥檚 time to stop thinking about trends in education as ephemeral, but rather as concepts that evolve over time through informed approaches.

Today, the future of education is being defined by this very evolution鈥攖hrough rigorous research and study. Advances in education research and neuroscience are revealing exactly why certain pedagogical and environmental factors benefit the learning process. Support for things like team-based learning, hands-on technology, and generous non-classroom workspace is no longer anecdotal but rather grounded in science.

It starts with placemaking, which is at the core of any good design. People with a strong attachment to 鈥榩lace鈥� are more self-aware, more aware of other鈥檚 needs, and are more connected to the community. Environments created with a clear sense of place, wherein students can comfortably engage with their surroundings and each other, is pivotal to the success of the student. Designers must consider a host of factors, such as scale, mental and physical wellbeing, neurodiverse appropriate spaces, informal learning environments, and varieties of instructional areas. Additionally, schools are taking care to ensure that students know their learning facility has been created with their needs top-of-mind.

Many schools and designers are leaning into the prioritization of health and wellness鈥撯�搉ot just from a safety and security standpoint, but with a deeper understanding of mental health. Students need room for both emotional space and areas that encourage them to learn and explore life skills. In order to achieve a more balanced offering of spaces, emphasis is being placed on providing areas where students can seek respite or assistance. Easy access to instructors, counselors, leadership, and other faculty is key to a student鈥檚 success.

Research has demonstrated that access to nature provides measurable benefits for hospital patients, but the same applies for education environments. Visual connections to nature in instructional spaces provide rest to the brain鈥檚 focus centers, and therefore increase the brain鈥檚 ability to receive and process new information. Physical access to nature provides similar and even more profound benefits to the entire body.

Successful institutions will continue to move away from the 鈥渙ne-size-fits-all鈥� mentality. This shift away from the didactic model will instead lean toward an engaged learning model that accommodates a diverse student body. While there is some debate about the legitimacy of the idea that learning styles vary, there is no question about the efficacy of the team-based learning model in classrooms. Physical engagement with other students and the material being taught is crucial to success in the classroom.

Additionally, amenities that were formerly not a part of traditional school structures, such as genderless bathrooms and meditation rooms, are also finding their way into new facilities. Though seemingly small adjustments, these offerings are crucial to fostering an inclusive environment.

Designers also seek to meet the needs of educators by providing them with the proper tools to successfully inspire students through their curriculum. While younger educators navigate pedagogical challenges and technology better, designers must accommodate all faculty by creating environments that easily support ever-changing technology.

Schools are also implementing more flexible office spaces for educators, allowing easier access to students and each other. Students with even occasional interaction with instructors outside the classroom are significantly more likely to graduate. These adaptable office spaces allow educators to feel more approachable to students who need support. To this end, this approach also helps break down the old hierarchy of the didactic classroom model.

Lastly, ever-evolving cross market trends continue to influence the education sector. Other industries have demonstrated how to create well-rounded, enjoyable built spaces which can directly impact student performance, and institutions recognize the value of bringing those successes into education environments. Likewise, student expectation is driving institutions to rethink many aspects of their facilities. For example, student cafes are being modeled after popular coffee chains that offer a wide variety of seating options and technology access for its patrons.

Ultimately our goal as designers is to create smarter, more diverse, more supportive spaces to provide every opportunity for students to thrive. We should be students of science ourselves, in order to better understand how to create successful learning environments. We should be students of people, so that we may better understand the people we design for. Students who thrive in education environments go on to build a stronger society鈥撯�揳nd it is our responsibility to equip these students to do just that.

Vandana Nayak is a regional education practice leader and principal, and Tyler Murph is a senior designer, both with Perkins and Will.

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