TQL Stadium by Populous architecturalrecord.com/articles/15553-tql-stadium-by-populous
TQL Stadium. Photo © Tom Harris
Architects & Firms Populous While sports fans regularly take to the streets of Cincinnati to celebrate local victories, the Queen City’s soccer enthusiasts show their love, win or lose. Prior to every FC Cincinnati game, supporters of the club hold a boisterous “march to the match” that amasses fans as it wends its way past breweries and parks to the pitch. In its design of the team’s TQL Stadium, which opened last May, Populous transformed the facade into a permeable screen capable of motion graphics that match the energy of this already epic tradition. After the team’s launch in 2016, FC Cincinnati played matches at UC’s Nippert Stadium. For the club’s first dedicated facility, located on a 12.4-acre downtown site, the Populous team wanted to devise a building that would support the fans’ enthusiastic forms of expression. Architect Ayesha Husain, a principal at the firm, says the 512,000-square-foot open-air TQL Stadium features an elevated east plaza in part to accommodate the home stretch of the pregame march. Moreover, inside the 26,000-seat venue, a portion of the seating bowl is raked at a 34-degree angle, to focus drumming, chants, and roars into a “wall of sound” that grips the pitch.
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