Mavericks’ owner guiding grad students’ design of team facility

Texas A&M [graduate architecture] (http://dept.arch.tamu.edu/graduate/master-architecture/) students are designing a state-of-the-art, multipurpose practice facility for the NBA’s [Dallas Mavericks] (http://www.mavs.com) , with input from Mark Cuban, the team's owner, and [Bryan Trubey '83] (https://www.arch.tamu.edu/community/formerstudents/outstanding-alumni/past-honorees/99/) , designer of AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, and numerous other iconic sports stadiums.

Students showed Cuban and Trubey their progress at a February 2016 meeting at HKS in Dallas and are scheduled to return to HKS to present their final designs at the end of the semester.

Students’ designs for the mixed-use development, intended to become a destination for Mavericks fans and the general public as well as players and team personnel, will include amenities not usually found in NBA training facilities such as a team store, public café, Mavericks museum/theater, a bioswale garden and an outdoor water feature in addition to standard team practice facilities.

The building will also include office space and conference rooms for startup technology companies, further separating the building from typical NBA practice facilities.

As they create their designs, the students in four studios working on the project are receiving guidance from Bryan Trubey ’83, [HKS Inc] (http://www.hksinc.com) . executive vice president, director of sports and entertainment and the project’s lead architect, who has made several trips to the student’s design studios this spring as the Thomas A. Bullock Endowed Chair in Leadership and Innovation.

Trubey, a member of the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows and an outstanding alumnus of the College of Architecture, designed some of the most notable venues in sports, including [AT&T Stadium] (http://attstadium.com) , home of the Dallas Cowboys, [Lucas Oil Stadium] (http://www.lucasoilstadium.com) , home of the Indianapolis Colts, and [U.S. Bank Stadium] (http://www.vikings.com/stadium/new-stadium/) , home of the Minnesota Vikings, a venue scheduled to open this fall.

Four faculty members are leading the studios: Koichiro Aitani, associate professor of architecture; Craig Babe, assistant professor of practice; Marcel Erminy, associate professor of practice and associate head of the Department of Architecture for professional programs, and Michael O’Brien, professor of architecture.