If all goes as planned, global architect-engineer-planner HOK will be back in the sports design game, almost six years after HOK Sport + Entertainment broke free of its parent company to become Populous. By November, HOK expects to seal a deal to acquire the decade-old sports-venue specialist 360 Architecture.
Since January, when the five-year noncompete clause lapsed between HOK and Populous, HOK has been "trying to figure out how to get back into sports architecture," says Bill Hellmuth, HOK's president. Architect 360 seemed like a good match because the two privately owned firms "share a lot of common culture," adds Hellmuth, who declines to reveal details of the purchase.