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In part two of our exclusive interview, Everton architect Dan Meis talks about his future with the club, challenging stadium guidance, the influence of Bill Kenwright and why he's designed a “Ferrari”.

Will you remain regularly on site during the construction phase?

“There are a few different means of procuring the contractor, whether we become part of the contracting entity, whether we remain with the club and work with a contractor but we will stay involved all the way through.

"It is critical we're not just saying 'hey, we hope it looks like this' and they're complex projects.

"There are things that happen while under construction that we tend to be on site to work through and I'm sure I'll have a team of people living here for a series amount of that time.”

How did you push and challenge the regulations on steepness of stands and the proximity to the pitch?

“Again, it was part of the client brief from the very beginning - wherever we can let's get up to the regulation.

“There is something called the Green Guide which drives a lot of this. Those are, in many cases, guidelines and not code restrictions or planning restrictions.

"So that was a big part of the early study of where are those limits and where will we push against them.

"It kind of depends of which part of the stadium you are, there are some places where people are happy to be really steep because that's the feeling they want.

"In some places with more hospitality seating you need a little bit more leg room but we've pushed it from the very beginning.

“There has always been that mentality that we're not building a Bentley, we're building a Ferrari. It's going to be new and have amenities but it's a performance building, it's a proper football ground.”

Was there an aspect of the design you had to convince the club to adopt?

“I don't think there has ever been any very strong push back. But in the normal course of things there's obvious concern about how much does the building cost.

“I know it's been out, over the time-frame, that the original thought was that it could be built for £300m and if you look at the cost of recent stadiums, it is not realistic.

“And then you have to add in that on this site a lot of our investment goes into just making the dock buildable.

“You can't build a stadium that people aren't going to be proud of, it can't be something that's compared to a 1990s era Premier League football ground. If you are going to do that then you stay at Goodison.

“So there was the realisation that there is a certain base level of cost you are going to have to spend to build a building on this site.

"So there was a little bit of, for everybody, 'ok, that's a different number' and how do we get around that, how do we make sure the finances are in place but the I've never had to argue about quality or anything like that, particularly from the chairman.

“He knew what he wanted from the very beginning and I feel a little like he's the grand puppet master. I can pretend I thought of any of this or sketched any of this but I still feel he worked me somehow because it really does feel like his vision, he's been amazing.”

(Image: James Maloney)

Can you explain how other buildings – such as Lime Street Station – helped inspire your designs?

“It is important. When you are an expert in a building type, it's often hard to innovate because you've done it so many times and you're quick to say 'it's got be done this way because that's how it's done in stadiums'.

“But I will often take clients to look at buildings like this one, the Titanic Hotel. It's a great example of a traditional building that feels very contemporary and the train station occurred to me pretty early on as very similar.

“It is a simple building, it's very functional – again, a Ferrari not a Bentley – and so that does become an important part of it, it's not just looking at other football stadiums. In fact, if anything, new football stadiums are not that influential to what we are doing.”

...have you designed the stadium with a permanent seat for yourself?!

“I haven't but I do kid about that a lot, that I should slip in a few seats that are off the manifest in case it is a sold out game and I could sneak in!"