He’s helped design award-winning office towers in New York, Chicago, Frankfurt, Germany and Durban, South Africa. Now, Dan Meis will focus on Los Angeles in his new role as president of Nadel Architects Inc.

Not that he’s a stranger to the city: Meis designed the Staples Center while he was a partner at NBBJ. He’d already earned international distinction as an architect in 1994 by winning a competition to build the $750 million Saitama Arena in Japan.

“The competition was a two-year process that started with a little model that I built in my living room,” said Meis. As the judges were deliberating, an inside source informed Meis that he had second place. He flew back to San Jose, ready to move on. But the tip he had received was based on early results and the judges later took another vote.

“When I got off the plane a woman from American Airlines was holding up a sign that said ‘Dan Meis, You Won,'” he said. He returned to Tokyo the next week to accept his honor.

After his years on projects around the world, Meis is ready to settle into a company close to its clients and familiar with the local market. Meis was previously a partner at Turner Meis & Associates, which worked closely with Nadel Architects and its founder Herb Nadel on several projects.

“I was interested in the idea that Herb was an L.A. architect working locally,” said Meis. “I didn’t feel much like an L.A. architect. We both had what the other wanted.” As for Staples, he said there is nothing like it, noting “My son will grow up and say to his friends, ‘My dad designed that building.'”

Travel remains a passion: He goes to Europe every year to take photographs and draw.

Meis lives in a Mar Vista neighborhood of homes designed by noted architect Gregory Ain. He has recently purchased a house in Pacific Palisades and plans to move there in the near future with his fianc & #233;e, Brandie Handelmann.