Greg Whittemore watches football differently from most people.
Even in his alma mater’s stadium in Lincoln, the Seward native is watching how people interact with their surroundings – where they get their concessions, how they navigate around their seats.
His career is focused on renovating and creating athletic stadiums and arenas.
Whittemore joined the HKS, Inc., architecture firm in Dallas in 1994 right after earning his bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in architecture at the University of Nebraska. A Leo Daly internship in Los Angeles and spending his senior year in UNL’s London Program made him appreciate cosmopolitan cities and his own wanderlust.
Though HKS has several specialty areas – including healthcare, education and hospitality – he found his interest in sports.
“You do not have to be a huge sports fan. It’s more about how we make venues for teams and spectators,” Whittemore said.
His first assignment was job captain for the Milwaukee Brewers Major League Baseball stadium, where he designed seating in the bowl and other features. Since then, he has had roles as project architect and team manager, and is now one of just 93 partners in the 1,700-person HKS firm.
“It’s changed and I have changed,” he said of his time at HKS. “It’s always been a great fit for me.”
Whittemore is now managing partner for the new Cleveland Browns stadium in Ohio, which will hold 65,000 people and feature a permanent roof on a 176-acred site with plans for hotel and entertainment spaces surrounding the park.
The football stadium will be 1.7 million square feet and sit 80 feet below ground level to meet requirements for the nearby Hopkins International Airport – a design feature he said is unusual, but not unprecedented at HKS, where he sees leadership and innovation at work.
“We are really proud of our great portfolio throughout sports,” he said.
Among his other projects have been the renovation of the Major League Soccer FC Dallas facility, for which he also worked on the original construction,
The architectural phases in big projects like these begin with concept design and progress through schematic design, design development, construction documents and construction administration.
Sometimes those steps dovetail in today’s world where building projects move quickly.
“We have few days off,” Whittemore said.
He said the Browns project has 65 individuals involved at one point or another. That excludes structural engineers, food service specialists and landscapers.
Work for the Browns started in earnest this year, but the firm has been working with the team for the past two years as they defined their needs.
“Before the project is started, there is a lot of background work done. I have been on this more than three years,” Whittemore said, noting that the project has had his full-time attention the past year.
“I hope this one is my favorite project,” he said of the Cleveland facility.
Construction will begin in 2026 with the new stadium opening for the 2029 season.
Whittemore enjoys attending the opening games in the venues he works on, though the 2020 opening for the Texas Rangers’ Global Life Field was memorable in an odd way.
That was a COVID opening, so a Chris Stapleton concert was postponed and cardboard fans occupied some of the seating. By the time the stadium hosted the World Series that year, fans occupied every third seat for social distancing.
His work at University of North Texas Stadium is memorable because of a rare instance of low construction costs that allowed them to do “a really, really nice stadium.”
Every project involves thousands of details.
“Some of the big ones, there’s so much going on,” Whittemore said. “You need to trust in your people.”
He once enjoyed drawing the buildings, but now manages all aspects, while also working with consultants and clients. Meetings tend to stack up.
“I have really smart people working with me. I will let them run, and when I can, give them words of advice,” he said. “Who you get to work with is so important.”
Making the experience positive for his clients is important to Whittemore.
“A lot of times they have never done it before and you want to do your very best for them.”
Growing up in Seward gave him a good work ethic, Whittemore said, and his 1988 class of 105 students gave him the opportunity to participate in everything from sports to swing choir to Boy Scouts.
His father, the late Donald Whittemore, taught at Seward Middle School and coached for many years, while his mother, Connie Whittemore, was a registered nurse at Memorial Hospital.
He recalls detasseling, teaching swim lessons at Dowding Pool, and having jobs at Metromail and Walker/Tenneco in Seward.
“Seward is a wonderful town. I tell people there are a lot of things that remain the same, but it’s active,” he said, pointing to the new Seward Wellness Center, trail system and the activity in the downtown area.
No matter which stadium Whittemore finds himself in, he remains a Husker fan and made it back for three games this year.
He and his wife, Amy, look forward to seeing his mother in Seward, his sister, Kim Brownell and her family in Lincoln and Amy’s family in Carson, Iowa, around Christmas.
Whittemore’s daughter, Kendall, is now a sophomore elementary education major at UNL, while her twin sister, Harper, is studying at the University of Texas in Austin with an eye toward law school.
