James Pearce

Griffith graduate’s architectural vision sculpts Asia-Pacific megaprojects

Master of Business Administration

A Griffith MBA graduate is back in Brisbane after leading delivery of one of the world’s largest megaprojects—Hong Kong’s 28ha Kai Tak Sports Park.

Architect James Pearce calls the visionary $30 billion (HKD) stadium precinct—due to open in 2024—the most challenging project of his career; at its peak he led a team of 150 across seven countries.

“None of these buildings are ever the work of one person, there are many, many people involved, from legal, to engineering to management of the site itself,” says Pearce, the inaugural 2016 winner of the $50,000 QBM Griffith MBA Responsible Leadership Scholarship.

“My role combines design as people might think of it—the aesthetics—with the problem-solving around delivering these very complex masterplans and buildings.”

Newly promoted to Senior Principal at Populous, one of the world’s largest architecture and design firms, Pearce returned to their Brisbane office lucky enough to have just witnessed the roof truss of Kai Tak’s harbour-set main stadium lifted into place.

“They floated the roof trusses down from the factory in China and through Victoria Harbour, the culmination of many months of work,” he says.

“It was obviously an immensely exciting moment to walk out on site and see these significant elements in place before leaving Hong Kong.”

Populous are globally recognised leaders in designing stadiums and event venues and have completed major placemaking projects on every continent.

Pearce helped steer Populous’ Kai Tak bid through an eight-month tender process, where visionary design inclusions such as a pearl-hued façade for the stadium (reflective of Hong Kong’s reputation as ‘the pearl of the Orient’) and oversized windows giving spectators views of the harbour and skyline helped win the business.

“The thinking was that if a tourist comes to Hong Kong for, say, the rugby sevens tournament, they’ll spend a lot of their holiday in the stadium, so we wanted a way for them to experience the city during that time too,” says Pearce.

Pearce is back at Populous’ Asia-Pacific HQ in Brisbane after almost four years in Hong Kong, where he established the company’s first offices there and grew the local staff to 20 at its peak.

Being able to help shape and grow an office culture unique to Hong Kong and those team members was a fantastic opportunity,” he says.

“And the Asia-Pacific focus of my MBA gave me some valuable insights, outside of the architecture industry I was familiar with, that were really beneficial to my work in Hong Kong and across Asia.”

Pearce’s Hong Kong sojourn also supercharged Populous’ entry for the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Business Awards, where they won the 2022 award for Excellence in International Business.

“Over the coming years an increasing portion of our work is coming from across Asia and the ability to work internationally is critical to the success of these types of megaprojects,” says Pearce.

“The Kai Tak project was a key part of the submission, and how we’ve have been able to take lessons learnt from it to our other work across the region.”

Pearce has filled senior roles on a series of successful masterplans and arenas, including Sydney’s International Convention & Exhibition Centre, Datong Sports Park in China and, most recently, the Jamsil Sports MICE Complex, a 35ha redevelopment of Seoul’s 1988 Olympic site.

“Working on projects of scale, I love the challenges in the long push and the stages of the process developing them—seeing the complexities and challenges and anticipating how to solve them,” he says.

“These event precinct masterplans are a huge shaper of communities that are now more often built in urban environments than out at greenfields sites.

“They’re not designed just for big events anymore, they’re 24/7 hubs of energy that people now experience just walking to work.”