The architect for Tottenham’s new stadium has revealed what it is like to work with Spurs chief Daniel Levy behind-the-scenes – including his phone calls at 3am.
The Lilywhites’ new home ground opened for business earlier this month after numerous delays, which had seen the north London outfit extend their temporary stay at Wembley after spending last season at the national stadium.
Talking about his relationship with Levy during the build, architect Christopher Lee revealed how the managing director used disregard the time difference to call him from New York
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, he said: “Our clients are demanding, they are spending a lot of money. I mean the project cost for Tottenham is over a billion pounds and as an architector employed by someone like Daniel, they expect you to be there when they call, whether that’s 3am in the morning.
“(That would happen?) Yeah, quite often. Daniel would be somewhere in New York and decide he needs to talk about something. Lot of Whatsapp actually. I think it becomes a very personal relationship, not so much a commercial one.
“You both commit to delivering something amazing, you buy into their vision, Daniel’s got this incredible vision for the stadium and Tottenham as a bigger community and you buy into that, you become part of that and it becomes your vision, your mission.”
'They expect you to be there when they call'
Stadium architect @CD_Lee tells @theRealNihal what it's like working with clients like @SpursOfficial's Chairman Daniel Levy. pic.twitter.com/gX7UyaOSIH
— BBC Radio 5 Live (@bbc5live) April 25, 2019
Opinion
Why will this not surprise anyone who knows anything about Levy? The Spurs chief has a one track mind and is laser focused when it comes to achieving his goals, which in this case was to provide a world class stadium for the club and community in north London. It would be fair to say he has hit his goals now that the ground is fully operational and that is partly down to keeping Christopher Lee and the construction team behind the development on their toes. He will have been demanding updates day after day while at the same time suggesting changes and amendments to ensure his vision came to life. It might be early days in the new Tottenham stadium’s life but considering how things have gone so far, it looks as though he has exceeded what he set out to do when the project was first launched. This must be a warning to others looking at working with Levy in the future – do not leave your phone on silent when you go to bed. You never know when he will call.