Baker Brian j

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UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Date:___________________

I, _________________________________________________________,

hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of:

in:

It is entitled:

April 8, 2004

Brian Joseph Baker

Master of Architecture

The School of Architecture and Interior Design

American Sport in the City: The Making of an Urban Place



American Sport in the CityThe Making of an Urban Place

A thesis submitted to the

University of Cincinnati

Division of Research and Advanced Studies

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Architecture

in the School of Architecture and Interior Design

College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning

Submitted April 8, 2004

by

Brian J. Baker

B.S. Arch., University of Cincinnati, 2002

Committee Chairs:

David Niland

Gordon Simmons

Jeff Tilman



ABSTRACT

A sports stadium is essentially a huge theater for the presentation of heroic feats. The

combination of dramatic function and monumental scale can result in powerful civic architecture.

Stadia are one of the great historic building types, representing some of the very earliest works of

architecture (Greek stadia), some of the most pivotal (Roman amphitheaters and thermae), and

some of the most beautiful (from the Colosseum in Rome to the Olympic Park in Munich).

Unfortunately, few stadia have become functional civic monuments in our culture, but

rather cold, uncomfortable places, often sitting empty and unused, in sharp contrast with the brief

periods of extreme congestion on game days. The best stadia provide a comfortable and safe

place for entertainment, but even these stadia often fall short of becoming integral and functional

members of their community.

There are three significant parts to this thesis: (1) what the stadium as a focus for sports

signifies to a city or region, (2) the importance of sports as a representation or image of a city and

within a city, and (3) how stadium sites can be invigorated to create an active place within the

urban landscape. These three parts can be broken down more simply as stating that the sports

stadium should be a signifier of civic pride, civic identity , and civic functionality .

Stadia by nature exhibit aspects of civic pride and civic identity simply through society’s

seeming obsession with sports, yet many fall short of becoming functional pieces of the urban



fabric. In order to create a truly urban sports facility, it is imperative that stadia not only create a

symbol of civic pride and civic identity, but also become a functional component of the urban

fabric through the development of ancillary programs.

The themes of this thesis will then be applied to a design project over the Hudson MTA

Railyards on Manhattan in New York City, New York. This site suggests a program that will

enhance and serve the surrounding neighborhood while mending the large gaping holes in the

urban fabric. A ‘masterplan’, or framework for development, will be established for the two

eastern exposed railway cuts from 11th

to 9th

Avenue bound by 30th

and 33rd

Streets, while a

comprehensive design featuring an NFL stadium accommodating sport, concert, and rally

activities and a multiplicity of program uses that could be attached to the stadium will be

developed over the western-most storage yard near the Hudson River. The remainder of the

development could include mixed-use facilities such as administration offices, retail/commercial

space, hotel, restaurants, and transportation facilities to maintain the use of the below grade

storage yards.







CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.................................................................................................................................3

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS.................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................................9

THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN STADIUM............................................................................................13 Ancient Beginnings ............................................................................................................................14 Evolut ion of the Modern Stadium .....................................................................................................19 Modernization and Growth in Stadium Design .............................................................................21 Doming Over........................................................................................................................................22 From Multi -purpose to Single-purpose ..........................................................................................24 The Camden Yards Phenomena ....................................................................................................25 The Stadium and Urban Revitalization...........................................................................................26

SPORTS AND LOCAL IDENTITY.....................................................................................................................28 Collective Identification......................................................................................................................29 The Stadium as an Urban Element................................................................................................34 ‘Postcard’ image.................................................................................................................................37

THE STADIUM AND SENSE OF PLACE.........................................................................................................42 ‘Placelessness’ in Stadia.................................................................................................................44 The Landscape of Sport....................................................................................................................45



THE NEW URBAN SPORTS LANDSCAPE....................................................................................................48 Economic Development and Profess ional Sports .......................................................................49 The Stadium as Architecture ............................................................................................................51 New Advances .....................................................................................................................................54 ‘Hybrid Programming’........................................................................................................................55 Synthesis..............................................................................................................................................59

SITE ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................................................................60 Site Selection.......................................................................................................................................61 Site History...........................................................................................................................................63 Detailed Physical Analysis................................................................................................................65 Site Precedents...................................................................................................................................78

DESIGN PROGRAM ANAYLSIS........................................................................................................................84 Program Selection..............................................................................................................................85 Design Objectives ..............................................................................................................................86 Descr ipt ion of Primary Spaces ........................................................................................................87 Program Precedents..........................................................................................................................112

BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................................................................116

APPENDIX............................................................................................................................................................119



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS / 3

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Cover Wrigley Field, Chicago Astrodome, Houston

Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati

Chapter 1 Soldier Field, Chicago, before and after addition and renovation

Figure 2.0 Olympic Stadium, Athens, 1896

Figure 2.1 Polykleitos the Younger, Theater, Epidauros, Greece, c. 350 B.C.

Figure 2.2 Circus Maximus, Rome, reconstructed models

Figure 2.3 Flavian Amphitheater (the Colosseum), Rome,

Figure 2.4 Flavian Amphitheater, sectional perspective.Figure 2.5 Olympic Stadium, London, 1908

Figure 2.6 Olympiastadion, Munich, 1972

Figure 2.7 Soldier Field, Chicago, 1933

Figure 2.8 Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY, 1923

Figure 2.9 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1923

Figure 2.10 New York Jets poster, playing in baseball’s Shea Stadium, 1964

Figure 2.11 Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field, Cincinnati, 1970

Figure 2.12 Astrodome, Houston, 1965

Figure 2.13 Proposed domed ballpark, Cincinnati, 1965

Figure 2.14 SkyDome, Toronto, 1989

Figure 2.15 Truman Sports Complex, Kansas City, MO, 1972

Figure 2.16 Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, 1992

Figure 2.17 Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, 1992




Chapter 2 Swedish soccer fans celebrate their team’s draw at the FIFA World Cup 2002

Figure 3.0 Refs at the Jaguar-Browns game in Cleveland run for cover as unhappy "fans"

try to hit them with refuse after overturning a last-minute call.

Figure 3.1 Boston Celtics official logo. Note the leprechaun representing Boston’s Irish

heritage.

Figure 3.2 Milwaukee Brewers official logo. Note the barley stalks associated with beer

brewing

Figure 3.3 Yankees great, Babe Ruth

Figure 3.4 Yankees Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.

Figure 3.5 Soldier Field renovation model

Figure 3.6 Soldier Field renovation towers above historic colonnade.

Figure 3.7 The Toronto SkyDome’s retractable roof

Figure 3.8 St. Paul’s Cathedral superimposed into the SkyDome’s section

Figure 3.9 Wrigley Field, Chicago, 1914

Figure 3.10 Wrigley Field, Chicago, 1914

Figure 3.11 Cleveland’s Browns Stadium and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Museum

Figure 3.12 Cleveland’s ‘Gateway Project’ including Jacob’s Field and Gund Arena

Figure 3.13 Major League Baseball Franchise Locations for 1998.

Figure 3.14 National Football League Franchise Locations in 1996.

Figure 3.15 National Basketball Association Franchise Locations in 1996.

Figure 3.16 National Hockey League Franchise Locations in 1996.

Table 1 Supply and Demand of Professional Baseball and Football Franchises, 1980-

June 1992.

Chapter 3 Aerial view of Houston’s Astrodome, 2001

Figure 4.0 Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati, 1970




Figure 4.1 Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, 1971

Figure 4.2 Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, 1970

Figure 4.3 Busch Stadium, St. Louis, 1966

Figure 4.4 Diagram showing the Toronto SkyDome’s retractable roof

Figure 4.5 Ballpark at Arlington, Arlington, Texas (outside Dallas), 1994

Chapter 4 Model of San Diego’s new ballpark, Petco Park

Figure 5.0 Toronto SkyDome, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Figure 5.1 San Diego Stadium and Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

Figure 5.2 New Arizona Cardinals Football Stadium by Peter Eisenman, Glendale, Arizona

Figure 5.3 New Arizona Cardinals Football Stadium by Peter Eisenman, Glendale, Arizona

Figure 5.4 New Euroborg sports complex by Wiel Arets, Groningen, the Netherlands.

Figure 5.5 PETCO Park, San Diego, opening Spring 2004.

Figure 5.6 PETCO Park, San Diego, opening Spring 2004.

Figure 5.7 Brooklyn Arena, Frank Gehry. Image of ‘urban room’ created at intersection.

Figure 5.8 Brooklyn Arena, Frank Gehry. Image of arena and roof garden.



ILLUSTRATION CREDITS / 6

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

Cover www.ballparks.com/baseball/national/wrigle.htm

Provoost, Michelle, ed. The Stadium: The Architecture of Mass Sport.

Rotterdam: NAI Publishers Rotterdam, 2000. 149.

http://www.sfo.com/~csuppes/NFL/CincinnatiBengals/newaerial.jpg Chapter 1 http://www.caasportsmarketing.com/soldierfield003a.jpg (top image)

https://reader010.{domain}/reader010/html5/0615/5b23931822cdd/5b23931c8f542.jpg

Figure 2.0 Provoost, 21

Figure 2.1 Roth, Leland M. Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and

Meaning. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992. 196.

Figure 2.2 www.romeguide.it/MONUM/ARCHEOL/ccircus_maximus/circus.htm

Figure 2.3 Roth, 232

Figure 2.4 Roth, 232

Figure 2.5 http://www.sfo.com/~csuppes/Olympics/1908London/

Figure 2.6 Hawkes, Nigel. Structures: The Way Things are Built. New York: Macmillan,

1993. 94.


Figure 2.8 http://ballparks.com/baseball/index.htm

Figure 2.9 www.figueroacorridor.org/figwalk/walk09.htmFigure 2.11 http://www.ticketsconcertssports.com/cinergyfield-seatingchart.gif


Figure 2.13 Shannon, Mike. Riverfront Stadium: Home of the Big Red Machine. Chicago:

Arcadia Publishing, 2003. Courtesy of Visual History Gallery. 22.







Chapter 2 http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/02/en/020613/8/10q7.html

Figure 3.0 http://espn.go.com/nfl/news/2001/1217/1297158.html

Figure 3.1 http://www.mysportshost.com/~asgsport/images/Boston_Celtics.gif

Figure 3.2 http://www.mysportshost.com/~asgsport/images/Milwaukee_Brewers.gif

Figure 3.3 http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ams22/Babe%20Ruth.jpg

Figure 3.4 http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ams22/History-Dimaggio%20Era.htm

Figure 3.5 http://www.ilfirstdivision.org/images/soldierfield_new_lg.jpg

Figure 3.6 Photo by Peter Thompson in an article by David Barboza of the New York Times ,

“Chicago Journal; Soldier Field Renovation Brings Out Boo-Birds”, June 16

2003.

Figure 3.7 Bale, John. Sport, Space and the City . (London: Routledge, 1993.) 33.

Figure 3.8 Bale, 33

Figure 3.9 http://www.brewers-fan.de/karten/cubs01_.jpg

Figure 3.10 www.ballparks.com/baseball/national/wrigle.htm

Figure 3.11 http://www.netblack.com/city/cleve/cleveland.jpg

Figure 3.12 http://mediswww.meds.cwru.edu/dept/urology/images/cleveland.jpg

Figure 3.13 Danielson, Michael N. Home Team: Professional Sports and the American

Metropolis. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. 29.

Figure 3.14 Danielson, 27



Table 1.0 Euchner, Charles C. Playing the Field . (Baltimore and London: The Johns

Hopkins University Press, 1993.) 8-9.




Chapter 3 http:/ /www.h-gac.com/NR/rdonlyres/e7bamat7uaru72bm3skm3ozou2nsca5fqj5a

wiiair5yqwca3k33cghpexrfizthd4yu6evzkot3a6fvadymlue31dc/astrodome_1ft.

jpg

Figure 4.0 http://www.theminx.com/issue5/saucer.htm




Figure 4.4 Peterson, David C. Sports, Convention, and Entertainment Facilities.

Washington, D.C.: ULI-the Urban Land Institute, 1996. 330.

Figure 4.5 http://www.rodschmidt.com/Sabbatical/images/The_Ballpark_at_Arlington.jpg

Chapter 4 http://www.bal lparksofbaseball.com/future/sd702.jpg


Figure 5.1 John, Geriant, and Kit Campbell, ed. Handbook of Sports and Recreational

Building Design. Volume 1 Outdoor Sports, Second Edition. London: The

Sports Council, 1993.

Figure 5.2 http://www.stadiumsofnfl.com/future/cardsstad900.jpg

Figure 5.3 http://www.stadiumsofnfl.com/future/cardsstad903.jpg


Figure 5.5 http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/future/sd701.jpg

Figure 5.6 http://www.sandiego.padres.mlb.com/

Figure 5.7 http://www.bball.net/documents/jpg/09_urban_room.jpg

Figure 5.8 http://www.bball.net/documents/jpg/Arena_roof_garden.jpg



INTRODUCTION / 9

INTRODUCTION

As historian Allen Guttmann demonstrates in Sports Spectators (1986), many people

have long identified themselves with the games they play, but also with the games they watch,

read, and talk about.1 Like family lore and religious traditions, sports fandom is often passed

down from one generation to the next. In other words, the relationship among fans, communities,

and sport is complex, powerful, and culturally significant. Sports shape cultures, drive

economies, and mold politics. They speak to community and personal values, traditions, and the

struggle over meaning and memory. Sports are a “metaphor for modern life.” 2

Dynamic and complex, cities are microcosms of our world culture, saturated with

symbols, places where community takes place on multiple levels and in various ways. A city

identifies with these symbols and, in turn, is identified by them. Sports can be the emotional soul

and physical center of a city, with residents celebrating with their team in winning moments and in

agony during defeat. With its visibility and focus on symbols, winning, competition, and partisan

fans, few other cultural forms lend themselves as easily as sport to being used as an indicator of

a region’s characteristics and representative of a civic identity.

1 Sands, 22.2 Sands, 22.



INTRODUCTION / 10

There are three different ways that a community’s identity is associated with sports, on

both symbolic and physical levels. First, through its relationship with iconic local athletes, with

whom a community connects and identifies; second, through the infinite re-telling of specific

sports-related events, both triumphant and tragic; and third, by way of landmark or monumental

places, such as ballparks, stadia, and arenas.

It is this third identity, ballparks and stadia, that is the physical embodiment of a city’s

sporting and civic identity. Yet many modern sports stadia lack the necessary physical

connection to the city, often segregated from the city by suburbanization, highways, or parking

lots, thereby failing to obtain a functional significance to the urban fabric. Stadia by definition are

inward focused; the purpose of a stadium is to focus fans toward the field of play. But this

approach has often neglected the exterior function of the stadium with which people interact on a

daily basis. Since a stadium is utilized only a few times a year, it often creates a dehumanized

landscape within the city during non-event days.

There are three significant parts to this thesis: (1) what the stadium as a focus for sports

signifies to a city or region, (2) the importance of sports as a representation or image of a city and

within a city, and (3) how stadium sites can be invigorated to create an active place within the

urban landscape. These three parts can be broken down more simply as stating that the sports

stadium should be a signifier of civic pride, civic identity , and civic functionality .



INTRODUCTION / 11

Stadia by nature exhibit aspects of civic pride and civic identity simply through society’s

seeming obsession with sports, yet many fall short of becoming functional pieces of the urban

fabric. In order to create a truly urban sports facility, it is imperative that stadia not only create a

symbol of civic pride and civic identity, but also become a functional component of the urban

fabric through the development of ancillary programs.

The first chapter, The Changing Shape of the Stadium, discusses how the stadium has

evolved over time, from the ancient Greek stadia to the new urban ballparks of today. It

examines the ways in which American stadia have gradually evolved over time and have grown

to reflect broader aspects of modern society. An awareness of the changes that have occurred is

necessary to contextualize the attachment of civic identity to a city’s home stadium and the effect

potential relocation of stadia has on a city’s identity.

Sports and Local Identity addresses the role sports, sports teams, and stadia have on

society’s impression of a city, and the city’s impression of itself. Stadia can often become a

symbol of a city or region, and citizens can often become sentimental toward their hometown

stadium due to the memories created there. This emotional attachment to sports architecture

leads to the next chapter, The Stadium and Sense of Place.

In the third chapter, the concept of how the stadium generates a love of place, a sense of

place-loyalty, place-bonding, and other kinds of localism is discussed. The notion of how some

stadia have become what amount to sacred places, worthy, perhaps, of future protection and



INTRODUCTION / 12

preservation like other revered monuments and historic buildings is also discussed as it pertains

to American sports architecture, a relatively young typology.

The fourth and final chapter looks at The New Urban Sports Landscape. This chapter

addresses the economic reasons stadia are built today and discusses the negative aspects of

stadia in an urban environment. The chapter concludes with an evaluation of current urban

stadia trends and possible solutions to the urban stadium dilemma.

The themes of this thesis will then be applied to a design project over the Hudson MTA

Railyards on Manhattan in New York City, New York. This site suggests a program that will

enhance and serve the surrounding neighborhood while mending the large gaping holes in the

urban fabric. A ‘masterplan’, or framework for development, will be established for the two

eastern exposed railway cuts from 11th

to 9th

Avenue bound by 30th

and 33rd

Streets, while a



developed over the western-most storage yard near the Hudson River. The remainder of the



storage yards.



THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN STADIUM

‘Stadium architecture has its own distinctive typologies, engineering techniques and

programmatic requirements: the stadium as an architectonic and engineering masterpiece, as an

aspect of urban development plans…[and]… as an impulse for economic development. All these

aspects can help the stadium fulfill an important multifunctional role for the surrounding area.’

-Kristin Feireiss,

Foreword from The Stadium: The Architecture of Mass Sport (2000)



THE EVOLUTION OF THE MODERN STADIUM / 14

American stadia have gradually evolved over time and have grown to reflect broader

aspects of modern society. An awareness of the changes that have occurred is necessary to

contextualize the attachment of civic identity to a city’s home stadium and the effect potential

relocation of stadia has on a city’s identity.

Ancient Beginnings

Understanding how stadia have become an integral part of our culture requires an

examination of the origins of stadia.

The origin of sports stadia lies in the Classic Period of ancient Greece. Greek stadia,

designed for footraces and field sports, acquired permanent form in the fifth century B.C. A

stadion – the Greek word for a unit of distance of about 656 feet (200 meters) as well as the

stadium structure with tiers of seats – might have been used only at certain times of the year.3

Stadia were often built by hollowing out a slope or hillside, then constructing rows of

seats in the form of an extended U-shape, open at one end and semicircular at the other. The

stadium at Athens, begun in 331 B.C. and reconstructed in 160 A.D., accommodated fifty

thousand spectators.4 It was restored for the Olympic Games of 1896.

3 Roth, Leland M. Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning , Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992.195.

4 Roth, 195

Figure 2.0Olympic Stadium, Athens, 1896

Figure 2.1Polykleitos the Younger, Theater, Epidauros,

Greece, c. 350 B.C.




Paralleling the development of Greek stadia was the theater, built for plays and other

public gatherings. Like stadia, theaters were built into a hallowed out slope, but with seating

forming a circular arc around a central stage. Theaters were found in every Greek town of

importance. The theater was such an integral part of Greek life; it was often considered as

important a part of civic life as the agora. 5 The hippodrome was a later Greek evolution,

developed for horse and chariot racing. Similar to Greek stadia in shape and construction, the

hippodrome differed mostly in its incredible length.

The hippodrome was the direct prototype of the Roman circus, which retained the

traditional extended U-shape and was similarly used for horse and chariot races. Roman

engineering, however, brought a larger scale and new construction methods. In the building of

both circuses and amphitheaters, the Romans dispensed with the scooped-out hillside and built

large, self-supporting and sometimes monumentally-sized structures. These new building

techniques were made possible by the use of concrete and depended on a multitude of vaults,

which formed the foundations of successive tiers of seats. In prominent structures, these tiers led

to a crowning colonnade.

The Circus Maximus of Rome is considered to be the largest circus, or stadium, ever

constructed. The circus was used for chariot races, the most important of which were those of

the Ludi Romani during the first week of September. The Ludi Romani opened with a religious

5 Roth, 233




procession in which the highest religious and civil authorities of the city took part.6 The Circus

Maximus was shaped much like a modern football stadium, but quite longer. The structure was

approximately 1820 feet (555 meters), from the stables at one end to the curve at the other, by

380 feet (115.8 meters) wide and held two hundred and fifty thousand to three hundred thousand

spectators.7

The Circus Maximus was built in the valley between the Palatine and Aventine hills

beginning in 329 B.C., but twice destroyed by fire and rebuilt.8 A long barrier called a spina ran

down the middle of the track, containing obelisks, fountains, statues, columns, and two temples.9

Men and women were permitted to sit together in the circus, unlike most amphitheaters of the day

and also contained the ancient equivalent of the skyboxes present in modern stadia. 10 The

Emperor had a reserved seat, as did senators, knights, those who financially backed the race,

those who presided over the competition, and the jury that awarded the prize to the winners. 11

The last race held at the Circus Maximus was in 549 A.D., nearly a full millennium after the

track's construction.

6 www.romeguide.it /MONUM/ARCHEOL/ccircus_maximus/circus.htm7 Roth, 2338 Roth, 2339 www.romeguide.it /MONUM/ARCHEOL/ccircus_maximus/circus.htm10 www.romeguide.it /MONUM/ARCHEOL/ccircus_maximus/circus.htm11 www.romeguide.it /MONUM/ARCHEOL/ccircus_maximus/circus.htm

Figure 2.2

Circus Maximus, Rome, reconstructed models.




The Circus Maximus has long since vanished, but the smaller Circus of Domitian

survives as the ghost image in the open space of the Piazza Navona, for the enclosing walls of

the circus’s seating were reused in medieval buildings.12

Smaller stadia for viewing of footraces were most often built as part of Roman thermae,

the often palatial “entertainment complexes” that also included baths and pools, gymnasiums,

gardens, and apartments.13

Paralleling the Roman development of the circus was the Roman amphitheater , a type of

building unknown to the Greeks. This Roman innovation in theater design combined two theaters

to form the oval amphitheater. The Roman amphitheater was devoted to gladiatorial contests,

displays of mortal combat involving man and beast, and other large-scale amusements.

Amphitheaters were found in every important Roman settlement. The typical ellipse shape with

rising tiers was the predecessor of today’s modern stadium. The oldest surviving example is

located in Pompeii, built around 80 B.C. It measures 500 by 350 feet (150 by 105 meters) and

could hold twenty thousand spectators.14 The word amphitheater, however, has become

synonymous with the huge Flavian amphitheater in Roman, often called the Colosseum.

12 Roth, 23313 www.romeguide.it /MONUM/ARCHEOL/ccircus_maximus/circus.htm14 Roth, 233




Built in A.D. 80, the Colosseum of Rome was foremost in its class, measuring 615 feet by

510 feet (188 by 156 meters), provided seating for forty-five to fifty-five thousand spectators. 15

The architect of the Flavian amphitheater is unknown, but was clearly a master of logistics and

construction deployment, for the building was under construction in several areas at once by

different work crews.16

The Colosseum arena floor, measuring 280 by 175 feet (86 by 54 meters), was covered

with wooden planks and sand over a series of subterranean chambers and passageways through

which lions and other animals could be admitted to the arena floor for gladiatorial battles.17 The

floor could also be removed and the lower chambers flooded so that the amphitheater could be

used for marine sports.

Piers of tufa and travertine were placed on a foundation of concrete to carry the concrete

vaults forming the shell for the tiers of seating that rose to a height of 159 feet (48.5 meters). 18 A

curving outer wall consisted of four layered arcades. The stone arcades incorporated engaged

columns – unfluted Doric on the ground floor, and Ionic, Corinthian, and finally Corinthian

pilasters on the uppermost, fourth story. The fourth floor also contained masts that attached to a

15 Roth, 23316 Roth, 23317 Roth, 23318 Roth, 233

Figure 2.3Flavian Amphitheater (the Colosseum), Rome,

aerial showing floor and tiers of seating.

Figure 2.4

Flavian Amphitheater, sectional perspective.




velarium, or fabric awning, that could cover the amphitheater and protect the audiences from the

elements.19

The gently rising stand consisted of three tiers; the top one was designated for common

folk and women, while the lowest tier was reserved for the highest class, including ‘boxes’ for the

emperor and other dignitaries.20 The individual section of seats were divided into seventy-six

separate blocks, each with its own entrance gate and exit stairs and ramps incorporated into the

vaulted passageways under the seats, similar to modern sports stadia.

Evolution of the Modern StadiumWith the decline of cities, organized trade, and transport in the Middle Ages, a long hiatus

ensued during which large modern stadia were not constructed in the Western world until the end

of the nineteenth century, with the arrival of the first Modern Olympics in the 1890s.

The Olympics led to the construction of the first large-scale modern stadia around the

turn of the century. Track and field stadia in London (1908) and Stockholm (1912) were built in

conjunction with those cities hosting the Olympic Games, as well as the restoration of the ancient

stadium of Athens.

19 Roth, 23320 Roth, 233

Figure 2.5Olympic Stadium, London, 1908

Figure 2.6Olympiastadion, Munich, 1972




Many of the prominent early stadia in the United States were built between World War I

and II. Several of these famous stadia are still in use, including Soldier Field in Chicago, Yankee

Stadium in New York, and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, all of which have been

significantly enlarged or modified.

The design of Chicago’s Soldier Field in 1924 is based on the U-shaped Circus Maximus

of Rome. The form, the facades, and the monumental classical architecture are typical of the

huge stadia built in America during this period. This neo-classical structure’s stands are crowned

by two sets of colonnades between which most of the stadium’s hospitality boxes were located.

The stadium is gigantic (it once seated up to 123,000 spectators and contained a running track

around the pitch) which created a difficult viewing distance between the stands and the playing

field. 21 The early stadia also lacked many amenities, such as food concessions, beverages, and

souvenir shops. These services were left to the outside private vendor, while today it is a major

source of revenue for teams. With increasing age, many of these stadia have suffered from

deterioration and lack of growth opportunities, requiring demolition. Several still exist and

prosper; yet many are being considered for replacement or have already been replaced with

newer facilities.

21Michelle Provoost, ed. The Stadium: The Architecture of Mass Sport . Rotterdam: NAI Publishers Rotterdam, 2000. 78.

Figure 2.7Soldier Field, Chicago, 1933

Figure 2.8Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY, 1923

Figure 2.9Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, 1923




Modernization and Growth in Stadium Design

The period of 1960-1977 witnessed an important new phase of growth as 30 major

professional stadia were built and opened in the United States. The increase in leisure time,

democratization, and prosperity of the 1960s resulted in more people becoming involved in sport,

both actively and passively.

Prior to the 1960s, U.S. stadia were designed either for professional baseball or college

football. Professional football games were played in baseball stadia, e.g., the New York Giants in

Yankee Stadium and the Chicago Bears in Wrigley Field, or in college football stadia.22 Both

types of facilities were limited in capacity and the baseball stadium’s seating arrangement was

not conducive to football viewing.23

Additionally, the 1960s saw a rapid increase in the popularity of professional football, due

in large part to the exposure of television. As a result, the number of teams in both the football

and baseball leagues expanded rapidly. The architectural response of the 1960s, in cites with

new and/or existing teams, was the first attempt at a multipurpose stadium. All twelve public

stadia built for major league teams between 1960 and 1971 were developed for use by baseball

and football.24 Multipurpose stadia designs were often dictated by public considerations rather

22 Danielson, 22023 Danielson, 23924 Danielson, 238

Figure 2.10New York Jets poster, playing in baseball’s Shea

Stadium, 1964




than by the desires of baseball and football teams. They were thought to generate more revenue

than single-purpose stadia, and cost less to build than a pair of stadia.25

Multipurpose stadia also posed design problems because of the different sizes, shapes,

and focal points of baseball and football fields. Circular plans placed too many seats in baseball’s

outfield, or too far from the foul lines, or with poor sightlines to the action centered on home

plate.26 Circular stadia left football fans with midfield seats quite a distance from the football field.

Multipurpose stadia large enough for football were too large for baseball, resulting in a less-than-

intimate setting inherent in the older parks.

The intent of the multipurpose stadium was to achieve a compromise whereby both

sports were treated equally. Unfortunately, due to this compromise neither sport was adequately

accommodated. While some of these stadia have been successful, their limitations are now

recognized and several teams have chosen to leave these facilities.

Doming Over

In response to the high costs of building and maintaining these new multipurpose stadia,

cities began looking for ways to increase the structure’s usage value by making it suitable for

other sports and even other activities such as rock concerts, conventions, trade fairs, evangelical

25 Danielson, 23826 Danielson, 238-39

Figure 2.11Riverfront Stadium /Cinergy Field, Cincinn at i,

1970 . Circu l a r p lan typ ic a l o f many

mu l t i p u rpose s t ad ia.




gatherings, and much more.27 This new multifunctional trend created the need for major technical

innovations in both the playing field and the roof of the stadium.

In 1965 the Astrodome in Houston, Texas displayed the future of the multifunctional

stadium. The Astrodome was completely roofed over and contained a pitch of artificial grass

(Astroturf), making it suitable for other activities beyond sports. The Astrodome could be used

hundreds of times a year for a wide range of events.

This world’s first multipurpose, roofed stadium was followed by a line of stadia featuring a

wide array of coverings, sliding or retractable roofs, pitches that could be raised or shifted

sideways, plus the adding of ancillary facilities such as hotels, offices, theaters, and shops.

The Toronto SkyDome was the first stadium in the world with a fully retractable roof. The

roof consists of four panels, three of which rotate or slide until the roof is fully open, exposing

100% of the field and 91% of the seats.28 The three movable panels stack on top of the stationary

one on the north side of the stadium so that no shadows are cast on the artificial turf field.

The SkyDome is a multipurpose stadium allowing Canadian football, American football,

baseball, rugby, or soccer to be played within. The dome also holds events such as concerts, the

opera, ‘demolition derbies’, the Three Tenors, boat shows, religious festivals by Christians,

Muslims, and other faiths, political conventions, circuses, carnivals and much more. 29

27 Provoost, 12628 Provoost, 15629 Provoost, 54


Figure 2.13Proposed domed ballpark, Cincinnati, 1965




The SkyDome is located near the downtown core, contrary to the Astrodome, and is part

of a major redevelopment of the Toronto waterfront, along with the CN Tower serving as a

landmark of Toronto. A unique feature of the stadium is the four-star hotel built into the north side

of the stadium; of its 346 rooms, 70 enjoy a view into the stadium.30

From Multi-purpose to Single-purpose

Dissatisfaction and problems with the circular multipurpose stadium design led to

renewed interest in the single-purpose stadium. In the 1970s, stadia began to be built specifically

for professional football. The nation’s first dual stadium complex opened as the Harry S. Truman

Sports Complex in Kansas City in 1972, including the 78,000 seat Arrowhead Stadium for football

and the 42,000 seat Royals Stadium for baseball. The gap between the capacities of these two

stadia illustrates the inherent difficulties in accommodating two very different sports into one

multipurpose stadium.

Teams continued applying pressure on cities to award them new stadia used exclusively

for one sport. The sports league applied pressure on cities to build single-purpose stadia or face

the threat of leaving for another city. In Chicago, neither baseball team would accept playing with

the NFL’s Bears in a multipurpose dome proposed by the city.31 By 1995, only ten public stadia

30 Provoost, 15631 Euchner, Charles C. Playing the Field . Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. 143


Figure 2.13

Proposed domed ballpark, Cincinnati, 1965

Figure 2.14SkyDome, Toronto, 1989

Figure 2.15Truman Sports Complex, Kansas City, MO, 1972




were jointly used by baseball and football, and pressures for separate facilities were pushing

cities to construct new ballparks or football stadia, or both.

The Camden Yards Phenomena

The most interesting consequence of exclusive sports stadia was the reinvention of the

baseball park. No longer hindered by the shape and size of football needs, architects began

designing more intimate ballparks reminiscent of the older ballparks. Smaller than multipurpose

stadia, the new ballparks featured real grass, seats closer to the field, and irregular outfield

dimensions. The breakthrough came in 1992 with the opening of Camden Yards in Baltimore. A

modern stadium with luxury boxes and premium seating, Camden Yards created a yearning for

baseball’s past with nostalgic brick arches and the famous warehouse behind the right field fence.

Similar “retro” ballparks quickly sprang up in Arlington Texas, Atlanta, Cleveland, Cincinnati,

Denver, Detroit, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Camden Yards and its offspring marked a new age for the ballpark, a sharp contrast to

the multipurpose concrete saucers of the 1960s and 1970s. Retro ballparks were an

unmistakable reaction to the dull, multipurpose stadia. One architectural critic saw the new stadia

as a rebirth of the ballpark as a monument, “a place in which baseball and the idea of civic

architecture come together.”32

32 Goldberger, Paul, “At Home in the City, Baseball’s Newest Parks Succeed,” The New York Times , April 17, 1994.Figures 2.16 & 2.17

Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, 1992




The Stadium and Urban Revitalization

Since the 1980s, stadia have increasingly been used as means of injecting life into

listless urban areas. Post-war planning and suburbanization had pushed housing, shopping

centers, and even sports stadia outside of the American downtowns. When HOK Sport’s Oriole

Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore opened in 1992, it set the tone for the next wave of stadium

design: revitalizing inner-urban areas. The hope of Camden Yards was that with its multiple

functions, large crowds, and retro-styling, the stadium would initiate a return of vitality to the

urban core. This expectation imposed quite different demands on stadium design. Unlike stadia

built in suburban locations surrounded by acres of asphalt parking, inner-city stadia were forced

to respond to the existing context. After the opening of Camden Yards, the stadium sitting amidst

freeways and seas of parking became a thing of the past.

Due to the Camden Yards phenomena, many cities began to believe that the presence of

downtown sports facilities would change the view of their city. Many sports theorists believe that

this hope emanates from the importance of sports in American culture. 33 In view of the

importance sport plays in American life, the idea of reinvigorating a neglected downtown by

33 Mark S. Rosentraub in Stadiums in Urban Space, in Sports, Jobs & Taxes , Roger G. Noll and Andrew Zimbalist, ed. p.182.




building architecturally beautiful sports facilities seems logical. Cities now believe that new sports

facilities located downtown can change land-use and recreational patterns in an urban area. 34

Beyond the cultural significance of sports, there are other examples of the use of

architecturally stimulating buildings to reinforce and reinvigorate the downtown core. Early in the

twentieth century, the building of architecturally pleasing office buildings supported downtown

areas as a place for commerce, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and even residential life.

New York’s Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Rockefeller Center are certainly

landmarks that reinforce the importance of Midtown Manhattan. Likewise in Chicago, Cleveland,

Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Boston, downtown office buildings, through their architecture,

helped to define the centrality and image of the city. Could the construction of new ballparks and

stadia evoke memories of the grand buildings of the early twentieth century and lead to changes

in the use of urban space?

34 Rosentraub, 182



SPORTS AND LOCAL IDENTITY

‘Art museums, symphony orchestras, theaters, and zoos are all marks of major cities, as are

libraries and universities, leading law firms and banks, and great commercial and industrial

corporations, but big league teams are seen by many as more easily and widely recognized

symbols of a place’s importance.’

-Michael N. Danielson,

Home Team. Professional Sports and the American Metropolis (1997), 102.



SPORTS AND LOCAL IDENTITY / 29

Various analogies have been drawn throughout history between the symbolic function of

architecture and the formation of personal and social identities. This chapter examines what the

stadium means to (1) those who periodically occupy it and possess allegiance to the teams that

play in it; (2) those who see the stadium only as a figure in the urban landscape; and (3) those

who see the stadium through media such as television or print. These views are far from uniform

and can be contradictory at times, with both positive and negative attitudes throughout. The

significance of the stadium in providing a civic identity cannot be fully appreciated without an

awareness of the significance of American sports themselves. This chapter begins with an

overview of the social-bonding function of modern sport in general. It identifies different ways in

which the stadium is held in affection by fans. Next, the stadium is seen as simply a piece of the

urban puzzle and how it relates to its surroundings is discussed. Finally, the chapter examines

how people identify a city they have never experienced, basing their impressions solely on media

influence.

Collective Identification

Professional team sports have a special connection with places. More than most forms

of entertainment, sports teams engage loyalty. For professional sports, these attachments

Figure 3.0Refs at the Jaguar-Browns game in Clevelandrun for cover as unhappy "fans" try to hit themwith refuse after overturning a last-minute call.




usually are communally based; most people root for the home team. As a result, professional

team sports are an important connection between people and the places where they live. 35

Professional teams not only represented cities, they became symbols of the places

where they played – what Gregory P. Stone terms “collective representations,” the “objectification

and representation of the community, sustained in communication to which communities owe

their persistence beyond the lifetime of their members.”36 One manifestation is in team names

derived from the community. The name Dodgers came from the nickname of “trolley dodgers” for

Brooklyn’s inhabitants in a city crisscrossed by streetcar lines. The Boston Celtics celebrate the

city’s Irish heritage, and the Minnesota Vikings the Scandinavians of the upper Midwest. The

76ers of Philadelphia and the 49ers of San Francisco capture critical dates in the history of their

cities. The Steelers and the Brewers proclaim the products that made Pittsburgh and Milwaukee

famous, just as the Pistons reflect Detroit’s distinction as the automobile capital of the U.S.37

Major league teams also foster civic pride and communal identity; the ‘home’ in home

team is an important part of the collective experience of urban dwellers. They often are the very

soul and fiber of the community. Sport provides one of the rare opportunities for people to

emphasize their communal ties within our society.38 In rallying around the home team, people

35 Michael N. Danielson, Home Team: Professional Sports and the American Metropolis. Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress, 1997. 5


Figure 3.1Boston Celtics official logo. Note the leprechaun

representing Boston’s Irish heritage.

Figure 3.2Milwaukee Brewers official logo. Note the barley

stalks associated with beer brewing.




identify more closely with a broader civic framework in the spatially, socially, and politically

fragmented metropolis.39

Sport is one of the few things in life that transcends all strata of the community, bridging

other divisions in society, such as a city’s problems with racial tensions, gender issues, or labor

and management strife. Sport provides a focus that unites a city’s various residents and is one of

the few things left in society that binds us together, regardless of race, economic standing or

gender.40 A stadium becomes the established venue for a city’s identity and a source of intense

localism.

Because of the close identification and emotional attachment between people, places,

and teams, professional sports is a distinctive business, one that is valued for more than its

entertainment value or place in the local economy.41 When the NFL’s Raiders tried to leave

Oakland for Los Angeles in 1984, the city of Oakland attempted to nullify their move by arguing to

a federal court that a sports franchise is “an enterprise with unique economic, civic, cultural,

recreational and psychological effect…unparalleled by other business activities.”42 Unfortunately

for the city of Oakland, their bid to keep the Raiders failed, and they lost the team to Los Angeles.

The Raiders moved back to Oakland for the 1996 season, where they currently reside.

39 Danielson, 940 Danielson, 11041 Danielson, 542 Danielson, 102




The American geographer Yi-Fu Tuan contends that “familiarity breeds affection when it

doesn’t breed contempt”.43 Similarly, many sport fans possess a special bond to their stadium

that can be likened to feelings of ‘home.’ Some stadia can be plain, lacking architectural merit or

distinction, yet their faults do not matter to fans. “They are the sites of a community’s past glories

and disappointments, hallowed ground where heroes wore the home team’s colors, buildings

redolent with memories of shared triumphs and defeats, festooned with championship banners

and relics of yesterday’s stars.”44

Sport sentimentalism is high among teams with storied traditions or historic homes. Talk

of the Yankees moving out of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx for a newer home in Manhattan

caused uproar among fans across the nation, not just within New York City. The thought of the

Yankees moving from ‘The House that Ruth Built’ to a new, modern stadium brought fears of the

storied franchise’s history being diminished. Similarly, the fans of the soccer team Arsenal in

England all but forced the team to stay in its undersized, out-of-date stadium.45

Built in 1924, Chicago’s Soldier Field has long been known as the “graceful, classical

acropolis of Chicago.”46 But on September 29, 2003, the city of Chicago, who owns the stadium,

43 John Bale, Sport, Space, and the City . London: Routledge, 1993. p.70.44 Danielson, 21845 Provoost, 12346 Quote of David Bahlman, in “Soldier Field Renovation Brings Out Boo-Birds”, The New York Times , by David Barboza,

June 15, 2003.

Figure 3.3Yankees great, Babe Ruth

Figure 3.4Yankees Joe DiMaggio and Mickey

Mantle.




opened the new ‘renovated’ Soldier Field in time for the NFL’s Chicago Bears first home game of

the season.

The stadium’s original shell was retained, but a new seating bowl and skyboxes were

inserted inside to add more modern amenities and luxury seating, The design converted it into a

modern football arena where steel and glass meet neo-Classical Doric columns. “It looks like a

U.F.O. crash-landed on an ancient ruin”, remarked The New York Times.47

Critics have said that the renovation has desecrated the National Historic Landmark, one

of only 2,500 such landmarks recognized by the federal government and the only professional

sports stadium so designated.

48

The Chicago Tribune has called the new Soldier Field the

"Monstrosity on the Midway" and the "Mistake by the Lake." The Chicago Sun-Times recently

released the results of a poll that declared it the city's “ugliest building”.49

Architecture critics and sports fans alike have decried the renovation saying that the team

and the city have ruined a historic treasure and damaged a part of the city’s lakefront. Fans and

Chicagoans alike were troubled that the historic colonnades would be so invaded by a modern

structure that their voices were made loud and clear to both the city and the press. The actions of

the preservationists, long-time fans, and architecture critics unfortunately went ignored, but the

actions themselves exhibit the affection fans, and non-fans, hold for their hometown stadium.

47 Barboza, “Soldier Field Renovation Brings Out Boo-Birds”, The New York Times , June 15, 2003.48 Barboza49 Barboza

Figure 3.5Soldier Field renovation model

Figure 3.6Soldier Field renovation towers above historic

colonnade.




The Stadium as an Urban Element

In the past, the baseball parks, the prestigious and elegant racetracks, and the large

sports arenas constructed in major cities in the 1920s and 1930s became civic monuments and

symbols of their city’s cosmopolitan character. Local communities identified with these structures

as if they were public buildings. These edifices were semi-public monuments that testified to the

forward-looking character of their cities.

In contrast, many of today’s stadia are public buildings, or were paid for with public funds.

Yet stadia are not just buildings that house the home team. Stadia have historically been the

largest gathering place in most American cities, where people came for political rallies, religious

revivals, circuses, rodeos, boxing matches, charity events, trade shows, concerts, and other

entertainment. Stadia also serve as instruments to renew or revitalize downtowns, energize local

economies, attract tourists, and underscore confidence in the future of the city.

Stadia serve as symbols and civic monuments, just as the cathedrals of the Middle Ages

differentiated European cities. It is the stadium that creates modern urban monuments; it is the

light towers of the stadium, not the spire of the cathedral, that act as urban landmarks.50 In

Danielson’s Home Team, James A. Michener writes, “A city needs a big public stadium because

50 Bale, 3Figure 3.7The Toronto SkyDome’s retractable roof

Figure 3.8St. Paul’s Cathedral superimposed into the

SkyDome’s section.




that’s one of the things that distinguishes a city.”51 Sports facilities often reflect the desires of

cities and teams to project their greatness to a larger audience and to future generations.

From the earliest ballparks, location, design, and the size of the playing facilities was

dictated by the interplay of urban development, technology, and the economics of professional

sports. Baseball parks were originally located on the periphery of cities because of high land

costs at the center of cities. As cities grew, ballpark sites moved outward requiring sites located

near transit lines (horse-drawn cars, then trolleys, elevated trains, and subways). 52

Ballparks were fitted into the pattern of urban streets and land uses, which usually meant

working with rectangular blocks. Dimensions of the fields were dictated by the size and shape of

the lot. These constraints of the urban grid produced the unique configuration and irregular

shapes of ballparks built throughout first decades of the twentieth century. Short fences and high

walls at Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field and Boston’s Fenway Park were the consequence of city streets

that had to be accommodated.53 Early parks were constructed of wood, but fires and collapses

cause owners to start building out of concrete and steel, the materials changing the shape of the

American city.54 When these more permanent structures were built, owners began increasing the

capacity of the parks to meet demand.

51 Danielson, 21952 Danielson, 21953 Danielson, 21954 Danielson, 219-20Figures 3.9 & 3.10

Wrigley Field, Chicago, 1914




Professional football built no stadia during the first half century. NFL teams neither

needed or could afford their own facilities and often played in baseball parks or in college football

stadia.

55

Ballparks were often too small for professional football crowds as the game became

more popular. Likewise, the differences in the shape and size of the baseball and football playing

fields often created bad seats for spectators.56

Arenas were usually located downtown, contrasting the outlying context of ballparks.

Arenas need less land than ballparks, so land prices aren’t a deterrent to central locations, and

they were able to book more uses and dates than ballparks to increase revenue and further offset

land costs.57 Sites at the center of the city were also desirable because they drew from the same

entertainment crowd as cinemas, theaters, restaurants, and nightclubs.

By the end of the 1920s, professional sports facilities were locked into urban locations –

arenas downtown and ballparks along transit lines radiating from the city center. Over the next

fifty years, cities would change rapidly and metropolitan areas began to spread people and

businesses further from the center, taking the sports stadia with them. The older arenas and

ballparks built before World War I started to become obsolete due to age and the need for

modernization. Poorly adapted to the automobile, older sports facilities were inconvenient to

expressways and couldn’t handle the influx of cars that crowded city streets and neighborhoods.





Just as the people and businesses moved outward from the city, so did most urban stadia. It

wouldn’t be until the early 1990s that stadia would venture back to the urban environment.

‘Postcard’ image

Cities regularly promote themselves through sporting events via the national media.

Most days of the week, the city’s name and image are projected via radio and television to

millions of people across the nation, providing a free source of advertising for the city. It is for this

reason that sports franchises are so highly sought after; “places are hardly considered places

without a [major league sports franchise].”58 Demand for professional sports teams easily

exceeds the supply of franchises made available by the leagues. Competition is fierce, with one

city trying to outdo another for rights to a team (See Figures 3.13 through 3.16 and Table 1).

A city containing one or more major league teams is often regarded as having a higher

stature than ‘non-big league’ cities. Media coverage of professional sports publicizes cities,

metropolitan areas, states, and provinces that have these major league teams. Televised games

often display a city’s skyline, famous places, amenities, and climate for regional and national

audiences.59

58 Bale, 5659 Danielson, 103




Professional sports teams offer cities nationwide, or even worldwide, recognition,

prestige, and publicity. The more successful the team, the more media attention and national

press coverage the city generates, and hence more image projection.

Teams and their stadia can attract major special events such as the Super Bowl, the

World Series, or All-Star games and bring tourism and capital with them. Teams also can attract

attention to smaller cities or newer metropolitan areas, such as Nashville and Indianapolis.

Stadia have also been used to help reshape a city’s image. Houston’s Astrodome helped

to recast the city’s image from “sleepy bayou town to space-age Sunbelt dynamo.”60 Likewise,

Indianapolis sought to change perceptions of Indiana being a ‘smokestack state’ by landing the

Colts in 1984.61

Along with the prestige and publicity of having a professional sports team comes the risk

of being tagged a ‘loser’ when teams aren’t doing well, by attracting negative publicity for futility.

Cleveland’s image as a failed city was reinforced by a string of losing to mediocre seasons by the

Indians in baseball and by the Browns in football. But a new baseball stadium and basketball

arena dubbed “The Gateway Project”, as well as new public attractions such as the Rock and Roll

Hall of Fame Museum, as well as the teams’ recent successes, have helped to transform

Cleveland and its teams into winners.

60 Danielson, 10461 Danielson, 104

Figure 3.11Cleveland’s Browns Stadium and the Rock &

Roll Hall of Fame Museum

Figure 3.12Cleveland’s ‘Gateway Project’ including Jacobs

Field and Gund Arena




Figure 3.13 (left)Major League BaseballFranchise Locations fo1998.

Figure 3.14 (right)National FootballLeague Franchise








THE STADIUM AND SENSE OF PLACE

‘…our personal and cultural experience of place embodies meanings that define identity, shape

our worldview, and anchor us in time and space.’

-Unknown



THE STADIUM AND SENSE OF PLACE / 43

Our personal and cultural experience of place embodies meanings that define identity,

shape our worldview, and anchor us in time and space. According to Christian Norberg-Schulz,

the relation of man to place is more than simply a matter of being able to orient oneself to one’s

surroundings, as Kevin Lynch implies, but has to do with a much deeper process of identification.

Human identification with a place presupposes that places have ‘character’, that is, attributes

which distinguish one place from another and which lend to a place its unique existence. 62

In Rational Landscapes and Humanistic Geography , the geographer Edward Relph

remarks that

“It is paradoxical that while analytic and rational methods of…planning have been

demonstrably beneficial, for they have helped improve the living standards and to

increase material well-being, they have also resulted in the creation of

landscapes which are frequently judged to be inhumane or dehumanizing.”63

He goes on to state that the dehumanized landscape is paradoxical because it is the result of “too

much rationalism and an excess of humanism.”64 He describes such inhumane landscapes, such

as international airports, fast food restaurants, some suburbs, and shopping malls. He describes

these places as often being ‘inauthentic’, ‘placeless’, or ‘disneyfied’.65

62 Abel, 141-4263 Bale, 4064 Bale, 4065 Bale, 40




These ‘inauthentic experiences’ give way to a feeling of no sense of place. The stadia of

today have also created an inauthentic atmosphere, with the 1960s and 70s concrete-bowl

models containing little to no landscaping or siting measures nor any distinct setting and the faux-

history of the newer ‘retro’ ballparks.

‘Placelessness’ in Stadia

Many critics have criticized the increasing ‘placelessness’ during the stadium’s

evolution from the old urban ballparks to the multipurpose stadia of the 1960s and 70s.

Many have called them “artistic failures – bland, poured concrete structures lacking

distinctiveness or sense of place.”66 In his book, Home Team, Michael N. Danielson

states that the multipurpose stadia in Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis

“create the impression that almost identical flying saucers landed in the middle of a

parking lot in each city.”67

In Sport, Space and the City , John Bale states that the tendencies toward modernism in

stadium design and location in the second-half of the twentieth century can be interpreted as the

manifestations of characteristics of placelessness suggested by Relph.68 These characteristics

include (a) the standardized values inherent in an internationalized, globally televised, synthetic

66 Danielson, 23967 Danielson, 23968 Bale, 41

Figure 4.0Riverfront Stadium, Cincinnati, 1970

Figure 4.1Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, 1971

Figure 4.2Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh, 1970

Figure 4.3Busch Stadium, St. Louis, 1966




environment; (b) the gigantism reflected in the ‘formlessness and lack of human scale’ of

proposed mega-stadia; (c) uniformity of design in international styles of stadium architecture; (d)

the stadium as part of an entertainment district , resulting from its purpose of attracting outsiders;

and (e) the tendency towards both futurism in some cases and ‘museumization’ in others.69

The Landscape of Sport

Innovations in construction technology, Bale insists, have made the high-tech stadium

simply a ‘sports saucer’, with complex structures and curving domes designed by computers.70

He claims that this technology that can produce domed stadia with retractable roofs and flexible

field and seating arrangements has created a ‘sports saucer’ with few natural or built

environmental landscape elements; at its worst, the overall development tends to be one of

“unrelieved sterile concrete.”71

In Bale’s book, geographer Karl Raitz argues that gratification from the sport experience

is enhanced if the sport landscape possesses a number of varied built or natural elements in the

stadium’s setting, contributing to an overall landscape ensemble.72 He’s saying that a landscape

with a variety of these elements is simply more interesting to an observer than one that is bland.

69 Bale, 4170 Bale, 3271 Bale, 3272 Bale, 42

Figure 4.4Diagram showing the Toronto SkyDome’s

retractable roof.




“Before actors appear, the scenery strikes the eye of the spectator.”73 Erik Maaløe found that

people find designs with a degree of architectural variation in them more fascinating than those

that are predictable and repetitive.74

Various architectural or site elements may offer a rich blend of exciting and satisfying

sensations and emotions, typified by views to the city, a certain part of the stadium (i.e. Camden

Yards warehouse), or stimulating architecture. Often, though, it is the unconscious elements,

such as fan sentimentalism toward a part of the stadium (i.e. Cleveland’s Dawg Pound), that

create a more intense feeling of place than the conscious elements. An authentic sense of place

is often created through time, possessing a symbolism that the architect never intended. The

concrete bowl stadia threaten this sense of place because it possesses fewer varied architectural

elements and scenery for the spectator to absorb and take pleasure in. They are more similar to

each other and offer less of an individual belonging, while at the same time turning their attention

inward, away from the city.

American geographer Yi-Fu Tuan uses the term ‘topophilia’ to describe “all human

being’s affective ties with the material environment…coupling sentiment with place.”75

‘Place-

attachment’ is widely regarded as contributing to the quality of life. Stadia should be an

73 Quote from Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the Modern Olympics, in John Bale, Sport, Space, and the City . p. 4274 Bale, 4275 Bale, 64

Figure 4.5Ballpark at Arlington, Arlington, Texas

(outside Dallas), 1994.

Note similarities with ‘concrete saucer’stadia’s lack of context or ‘landscape’elements.




‘authentic’ place, Edward Relph argues, one for which “affection does not result from fad or

fashion but is felt in an unconscious way.”76

It can be argued that the sterile concrete doughnuts built in the United States in

the 1960s and 1970s lack a feeling of place. But few architectural critics have criticized

the current wave of ballparks and stadia for their lack of authenticity or integrity. The new

stadia react better with the surrounding context of the ballpark than their predecessors,

sometimes incorporating leftover or historic elements into the stadium design, and it is for

this reason that ‘traditional’ or older stadia built in the 1920s and 30s have been hailed

and copied during the most recent stadium-building boom in the 1990s. These stadia

attempt to generate intense identification between people and place, but do not succeed

as expected due to an unauthentic creation of place, creating a ‘fad’ or ‘fashion’ rather

than a true ‘place’.

76 Bale, 64



THE NEW URBAN SPORTS LANDSCAPE

‘Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men's blood... Make big plans; aim high in hope

and work.’

-Daniel Burnham



THE NEW URBAN SPORTS LANDSCAPE / 49

The last twenty years have seen an explosion in the construction of new stadia in the

United States, Asia, and Europe. New technologies and innovations are being incorporated into

these new stadia, as well as the construction of new hotels, restaurants, and other facilities

adjacent to these projects. Stadia are being used as a catalyst for economic development in

cities as well as to heighten a city’s image and profile. The combination of increased mobility and

the recent emergence of modern technologies have seriously undermined the traditional

importance of the city. Planners in the United States are striving to slow the migration of people,

businesses, and sports facilities to the peripheries of cities by constructing urban shopping malls,

markets, museums, parks, and stadia.

Economic Development and Professional Sports

Arenas and stadia are seen as magnets that will bring business and tourists into a

particular area, revitalizing decaying neighborhoods, enhancing the appeal of downtown to

investors, or fostering economic development in suburbs. Traditionally, ballparks were located on

the urban periphery where land was relatively cheap, but cities are now using sports to bolster

downtown development, thereby relocating stadia into the heart of many cities. Downtown stadia,

promoters hope, will attract people to the central business district in the evening and on




weekends, in the process bolstering tourism, restaurants, and hotels. Minneapolis officials saw

the Metrodome largely in terms of its contribution to the vitality of the central business district.77

Arenas and stadia have had a positive effect on adjacent development in some places.

Busch Stadium was a central element of an ambitious plan to renew downtown St. Louis. In New

Orleans, the Superdome sparked nearby hotel, retail, and office development, and development

of three stadia and an arena in downtown Atlanta contributed to the expansion of the central

business district.78

In most of these places, however, stadia have been part of larger development efforts

that presumably would have proceeded even if sports facilities had not been developed, such as

Camden Yards in Baltimore or the Hackensack Meadowlands development in New Jersey.79

For every positive stadium development, there are just as many if not more sports

facilities that have done little for the surrounding economy. Expectations that Houston’s

Astrodome would “become a center for public entertainment and an attraction for conventions

and other businesses…were overly optimistic.”80 Even downtown stadia, typically built as part of

larger redevelopment plans do not guarantee success. In Minneapolis, where “optimistic stadium

77 Danielson, 10878 Danielson, 10979 Danielson, 10980 Danielson, 109




promoters forecast an economic boom for the area surrounding the dome, the stadium has failed

to generate any sizable development.”81

The Stadium as Architecture

Sports architecture is a complex and complicated building type to create successfully.

Stadia often suffer from many needs that quickly become negative aspects in built form. Current

stadia are dominant insertions into cities with intense proportions, yet often sit empty and unused,

contrasting with brief periods of extreme congestion on game days, leaving a space that is

depressing and considerably unpleasant.

A major trend in the 1960s and 70s was the building of large stadia in out-of-town

locations where crowds and traffic would create less of a disturbance to the everyday lives of

people not attending events. These locations offered lower land costs and ease of access by

automobile drivers. This trend isolated the stadium from the communities they were meant to

serve, but provided the amount of car parking required. For example, The Astrodome at

Houston, a domed stadium built in 1964 for both baseball and football, seats 66,000 spectators

for concerts, 52,000 for football, and 45,000 for baseball. Yet it is surrounded by 30,000 parking

spaces (on average, less than 2 people per car for sporting events). 82 Other similar stadia such

81 Danielson, 10982 Provoost, 148




as The Truman Sports Complex in Kansas City and Giants Stadium in New Jersey hold similar

spectators to car ratios.

The next step in stadium development came in 1989 with the opening of Toronto’s

SkyDome in Ontario, Canada. Contrary to its American counterparts, Toronto bravely decided to

build the SkyDome in the very center of their lakeside city to avoid the problems of out-of-town

sites (large seas of parking, long commuting distances for spectators, lack of context, etc.). The

stadium is within walking distance of most of the city center and uses much of the transport and

social infrastructure of Toronto. 83

While many of these new sports stadia attempt to connect to the surrounding built

context, including historical structures, few connect with the city’s streets. Many of the areas

around new stadia are positively barren after games and on non-event days. A large part of the

urban fabric is desolate for 78-97% of the year (based on 81 baseball home games and 10

football home games a year) creating a void in an important part of the city. Architects’ attempts

to transform the stadium from an autonomous object into a logical element of the city have not yet

been fully realized. Some issues concerning stadium development include car parking , the long

periods of abandonment, the monumental scale, its inward-looking form, and the inflexible

elements of a stadium.84

83 John, Geriant, and Rod Sheard. Stadia: A Design and Development Guide. Third Edition. London: Architectural Press,2000. 3484 John & Sheard, 48-49

Figure 5.0Toronto SkyDome, Toronto, Ontario, Canada




Stadia take enormous amounts of urban space. Large parking lots, surface parking or

garage parking, are needed to accommodate fans traveling to games. Many feel that building a

garage for some sports, such as football, are not economically feasible due to the short football

schedule (only ten home games a year). Therefore, surface lots are more widely used, utilizing

almost ten times more area than the area of a typical stadium (based on 30,000 parking spaces

for a 70,000 seat stadium- 250 acres for parking and 25 acres for the stadium). Further, this

parking is only used for a short period of time. For a few times a week, the whole car park is full

and for the rest it becomes a huge desolate place.

Stadia tend to stand empty and unoccupied for long periods of times, sometimes a week

or more (for football-only stadia, this can be as long as seven and a half months), creating a bleak

and lifeless environment throughout its surroundings. Then for short periods of time, stadia are

so intensively used that they overwhelm their surroundings. This pattern of use, most unique

among building types, inflicts upon the stadium and its surroundings the worst effects of under-

use and over-use.

A stadium also is a very large structure, casting large shadows on its surroundings and

dominating its built context. Sinking the level of the playing field and/or scaling the exterior of the

stadium to a more pedestrian-friendly scale are two ways one can offset the gigantic scale of

stadia.

Figure 5.1Car parking requirements pose a significant problem. San Diego Stadium (above)shows one solution on a non-urban si te.Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati (below)offers an alternative for urban sites: thestadium is built atop a vast car park garage.




Sports architecture is by nature an inward-looking form. The stadium, much like a

theater, looks toward a center stage. This inward focus often causes the stadium to turn its back

on the surrounding environment. The elevation facing the street or surrounding landscape often

becomes unwelcoming, furthered by security fences and other crowd control measures.

Stadia by nature are structurally inflexible, creating hardships in combining other sports

and entertainment within the structure. Seating configurations are fairly standard and structural

bays are a near constant. The large cantilever roof required in most new stadia requires

substantial structures at frequent intervals. It is difficult to inject large covered sports halls or

swimming baths under the structure; therefore, one must consider additional accommodations to

be separate from, but possibly attached to, the stadium. If this is done, and space permits, it

would seem that allying sports facilities with the stadium is an extremely desirable one.

New Advances

Sports architecture’s new urban role has created the condition whereby a city can identify

with its stadium, for both recognition and to attract tourism and business from competing rival

cities. Stadia and cities have begun to adopt a self-promotional strategy, encouraging new

stadium construction to replace the old, engineering works lacking in aesthetic quality. Just as

Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum put Bilbao on the world map, cities across the world are

now in search of their own ‘postcard city’, and doing it through sports architecture.Figure 5.2 & 5.3New Arizona Cardinals Football Stadium by

Peter Eisenman, Glendale, Arizona




‘Hybrid Programming’

Many issues concerning current stadia development and design can be alleviated

through the addition of supplementary architectural programming. In other words, a stadium can

be conceived of with another program grouped into it. The other programs ensure that when

there are no sporting events scheduled, that there is enough program left over to create an active

public space in the surrounding area. When no events are occurring, a hotel, cinema, or other

program components should be able to use parts of the stadium. The stadium should be

surrounded by effective public space, so that this area could be used for people to socialize on

non-game days, and used as ‘break-out’ space before and after games, rather than the current

trend of surrounding stadia, even newer ballparks, with surface parking lots. Additional

programming allows the stadium to readdress the street, creating a stadium with both an inward

focus toward the action and an outward focus toward the street. In this way, the stadium

becomes more than a sports stadium, but a piece of an urban complex. This stadium

development technique can be called ‘hybrid programming’.85

85 Wiel Arets in The Architecture of Mass Sport , p. 176.

Figure 5.4New Euroborg sports complex by Wiel Arets,

Groningen, the Netherlands.




Retail and commercial shops, hotels, offices, convention spaces, and many other programs can

all be infused into stadium design to strengthen a stadium landscape and to create a destination

during non-event days. Stadia can also be linked to or surrounded by entertainment facilities

such as cinemas, museums, theaters, and restaurants to create an all-day entertainment

destination. These programs help to sustain the area around the stadium, and make the stadium

more a part of the community. The additional programming, if integrated considerately, can solve

many of the dilemmas and constraints sports stadia contain. They can help to offset the gigantic

scale of stadia by placing program on the periphery of the stadium, producing pedestrian-friendly

street fronts, and create an outward-looking form.

‘Hybrid stadia’ would create a regular flow of people day by day, becoming part of the

fabric. This regular influx of people will generate its own business and character, creating a

multifunctional ‘hybrid’ stadium complex and to reintroduce the stadium as a cultural

manifestation of the importance of sports as a representation or image of a city.

Interestingly, a type of ‘hybrid stadia’ has become increasingly popular in the United

States since the beginning of this decade. These new sports venues and ancillary developments

focus on development of blighted areas of the city’s core and infusing the area with a sense of

place and destination, where once there was nothing. The ‘sports village’ is being used to

promote smart growth, transit-oriented development, and urban renewal within cities looking to

rejuvenate their downtown.




San Diego’s new baseball park, Petco Park, is being developed within twenty-six blocks

of a part of the East Village, a section of the city’s most blighted area.86 It began about a decade

ago when the San Diego Padres began seeking a new ballpark to replace the suburban, multi-

purpose stadium they had been sharing with the NFL Chargers. At the same time, the city

wanted to create 24-7 neighborhoods downtown. City officials decided it takes a ‘village’, not just

a new sports venue, to create this type of downtown neighborhood.87

Despite being situated near the waterfront and San Diego’s convention center, the East

Village was mainly an underutilized warehouse district. The city and developers are now creating

$593.3 million worth of hotel, residential, retail, and parking structures.88 The ballpark ‘village’,

also containing a square-block park and a tree-lined boulevard, is serviced by four trolley stops,

creating a transit-oriented district.

Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry has recently been named the master planner and

architect for a proposed $2.5-billion, mixed-use arena village in Brooklyn, New York for

basketball’s Nets. Called the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards, the 21-acre site is bound by Flatbush

Avenue, Atlantic Avenue, Vanderbilt Avenue, and Dean Street, with eleven acres of the site

currently a LIRR train yard, which would be decked over and relocated. 89

86 Post, Nadine M. “Focus on Sports Villages: San Diego’s Ballpark Neighborhood is a Grand Slam Against Slums.”Engineering News-Record . 8 March 2004. 3. <http://enr.construction.com/features/buildings/archives/040208a.asp>87 Post, 188 Post, 289 http://www.metropolismag.com/html/urbanjournal_1203/brooklynstadium.html

Figures 5.5 & 5.6PETCO Park, San Diego, opening Spring

2004.




Surprisingly, the arena is but a small part of the plan. This development calls for a

800,00 square-foot, 19,000-seat arena, mixed with an urban complex including four office towers,

300,000 square feet of retail space; and 13 apartment buildings ranging in height from 110 to 452

feet.90 The project also creates six acres of landscaped public open space – including a park on

the arena’s roof ringed by an open-air running track that doubles as a skating rink in winter with

panoramic vies facing Manhattan, 4500 units of housing, and an open, glassy arena that would

animate the street even on non-game days.91

In addition to serving as a professional sports complex and an international entertainment

destination, the Arena will serve as an integral part of the local community, hosting sporting

events for local groups, including Brooklyn’s seven colleges and universities, as well as concerts,

family entertainment and corporate and special events.92

90 http://www.metropolismag.com/html/urbanjournal_1203/brooklynstadium.html91 http://www.metropolismag.com/html/urbanjournal_1203/brooklynstadium.html92 http://www.bball.net/documents/doc/Press%20Release.doc

Figure 5.7 & 5.8Brooklyn Arena, Frank Gehry. Image of

‘urban room’ created at intersectionto and arena and roof arden




Synthesis

These recent trends in sports venue design will be explored in a conceptual, mixed-use

development that explores the concept of a major sports facility as a nucleus of urban life while

integrating a multiplicity of uses seemingly “attached” to the facility.

The design project is sited over the Hudson MTA Railyards on Manhattan in New York

City. This site suggests a program that will enhance and serve the surrounding neighborhood

while mending the large gaping holes in the urban fabric. The project incorporates a professional

football stadium that can accommodate sport, concert, and rally activities and a multiplicity of

program uses that could be attached to the stadium. Surrounding or attached to the stadium are

support facilities for the event space as well as retail, commercial, and hotel facilities that serve

both the venue and the city. In this sense, the stadium is a functioning entity of city fabric where

people can be seen every day of the week, not just on event days.

The concept is to create a critical mass of sports, leisure, and entertainment facilities that

will act as a catalyst for development and creating a new vitality for the surrounding area. The

complex will integrate with the city fabric and support functions that are complimentary to the

cityscape and geared toward full-time use, not around a series of events.



SITE ANALYSIS / 60

SITE ANALYSIS

Hudson River/MTA Rail Yards – New York City, New York

‘The area is isolated from public transportation, has few public amenities or significant

greenspace, and is primarily characterized by large tracts of underutilized land. Its strategic

location adjacent to Midtown Manhattan provides a unique opportunity to plan comprehensively

for its future to maintain its place as the premier financial center in the world.’

-NYC Planning Department websiteHudson Yards looking east, with MidtownManhattan in background

Photo courtesy of the New York City PlanningDepartment



SITE ANALYSIS / 61

Site Selection

Sport in urban space, as proposed in this thesis, involves the careful understanding of a

location and the needs of the city. Stadia often have a negative connotation in the neighborhoods

in which they are located for many reasons, but mainly, the traffic congestion in the area on game

days and its antithesis, the lifeless nature of the stadium on non-event days. To alleviate this

problem, a stadium must energize the community throughout the year. It must handle traffic

efficiently to not disrupt neighbors, and bring a steady flow of people to the area. Due to its large

presence, it must also be sympathetic to its surroundings and strive to become a symbol of the

city.

New York City is an appropriate location for a project of this type due to the already

heavily saturated symbolic and iconic nature of much of Manhattan’s architecture. Downtown

and Midtown are densely populated with soaring skyscrapers that are symbols of New York City

(Downtown- UN Headquarters, the former World Trade Center; Midtown- the Empire State

Building, Chrysler Building). This thesis is attempting to create architecture with an identity of its

own, an identity of the surrounding area and to create a sense of ‘place’ within the city.

The Hudson Railyards in Far West Midtown lie in a neglected, industrial part of

Manhattan, one of the few large spaces available for redevelopment in the city. The city of New

York has looked to this area in the past for a possible baseball stadium and is now looking at it as

the location for a possible stadium in their Olympic bid for 2012. The proximity to the proposed

Empire State Building, New York City

Photo courtesy ofhttp://home.sandiego.edu/~jdooley/empire%20state.JPG (Accessed on April 2, 2004)



SITE ANALYSIS / 62

extension of the Number 7 Subway line and to major institutions such as the Javits Convention

Center, the new Penn Station (in the Farley Building), and Madison Square Garden could assist

in creating a entertainment and transportation district just west of Midtown. The location of the

railyards next to the Javits Convention Center allows for shared parking, shared hotel space, and

shared plazas. Links from Midtown Manhattan to the newly developed Hudson River Park and

the waterfront itself are important aspects of this site. Introducing a hotel and retail space into the

stadium design will help to make the riverfront a destination within the city, drawing people west

and creating a place for conventioneers to stay and shop.

Hudson Yards, Manhattan, New York City

Photo courtesy of the New York City PlanningDepartment

Diagram of possible site links andconnections. By author.



SITE ANALYSIS / 63

Site History

Beginning as part of the marshy riverbanks of the Hudson River, this area on the western

edge of Manhattan has undergone a succession of distinct transformations over the last four

hundred years. Developed into farmland by Dutch settlers in the eighteenth century,

subsequently transformed into a thriving freight yard in the mid-nineteenth century, the site area

exists today as a diverse collection of monumental structures, railway lines, storage yards, and

approaches to the Lincoln Tunnel.

The eastern bank of the Hudson River originally ran along what is now 10th

Avenue. As

the edge of the estuary, into which flowed the Great Kill stream at 41st

Street, the west side

initially existed largely as marshland, changing shape and extent daily with the ebb and flow of

the Atlantic’s tides. For nearly two hundred years, Dutch farmers worked this land, known at the

time as Bloomingdale, to supply the growing village at the southern tip of Manhattan with

agricultural produce. The continued expansion of these farm estates came to an abrupt halt with

the adoption of the 1811 Grid Plan, as development quickly resulted in the division of all the

original farms into rectangular building lots.

Furthering this transition from an agricultural to an industry-based economy, in 1851 the

newly founded Hudson River Railroad Company opened a large freight yard at 11th

Avenue

between 30th

and 34th

streets, taking over this west-side area as its center. As a result,

lumberyards, brickyards, lime kilns, warehouses, and distilleries all began to permeate the

Piers, shipping, and trains dominate theHudson River in the early twentieth century.

Photos courtesy of The New York Waterfront:Evolution and Building Culture of the Port andHarbor. Edited by Kevin Bone. New York: TheMonacelli Press, 1997. p.194 & 195



SITE ANALYSIS / 64

surrounding neighborhood. Throughout the nineteenth century, however, no bridges or tunnels

extended across the Hudson; instead, cargo came across on barges from New Jersey while

passengers arrived on ferries to the west-side piers.

Drawn to these emerging industries, Irish immigrants moved into the district to work on

the piers and railyards. Living in tenement blocks located nearby, these workers quickly attracted

the attention of social reformers because of the poverty of their conditions. The area became

known as Hell’s Kitchen (renamed Clinton in 1959) after the infamous gang who raided the 30th

Street yard of the Hudson River Railroad. Further adding to the various infrastructure elements of

the site, in 1871 New York’s first elevated railroad (now demolished) opened along 9th

Avenue.

At ground level, streetcars and freight trains rumbled through the neighborhood along 11th

Avenue. The piers and railyards continued to dominate the area’s industrial, working-class

character from the 1850s through the 1940s.

Infrastructure and extensive buildings consisting of freight yards, factories, rail lines,

tunnels, warehouses, and piers have long shaped the character of the surrounding area. A

residue of New York’s transportation industries, the area exists as a legacy of the city’s late-

nineteenth-century past.

(All information obtained from the New York City Planning Department website,

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/hyards/plan.html )

North River piers and West Side Rail Yards,Manhattan. Photographer unknown. Circa1950.

Photo courtesy of Bone, 226



SITE ANALYSIS / 65

Detailed Physical Analysis

MTA Railyards

Officially known as the John D. Caemmerer Storage Yard and Maintenance Complex, the

MTA Rail Yard consists of a 30-track, 350-car storage area located on twenty acres west of

Pennsylvania Station (bounded by West 30th

and West 33rd

Streets, Tenth and Twelfth Avenues).

The Yard was built in 1987 to improve Long Island Rail Road’s operating efficiency and peak-

period train availability by eliminating the need to send empty trains back through the East River

tunnel. The MTA Rail Yard includes a control tower, buildings housing the maintenance

equipment facility, a maintenance-of-way facility, interior car cleaning, yard administration, a

transportation facility, AC and DC substations, and emergency facilities. The facility is connected

to Pennsylvania Station by four throat tracks, a series of track routing switches and associated

communications and track signal systems. Along the south and west boundary within the yard is

part of the High Line, an elevated rail spur that at one time carried freight south to Bank Street.

There are several portions of the study area besides the John D. Caemmerer rail yards

where the railroad cuts exist. Directly to the east of the rail yards between Ninth and 10

th

Avenues are below-grade railroad tracks. One building has been built over these tracks, but

there are still two large lots with exposed railroad cuts. Exposed railroad cuts are also located to

MTA Rail Yards, Manhattan, present conditions Photo courtesy of the New York City PlanningDepartment



SITE ANALYSIS / 66

the east of the Javits Convention Center and 11th

Avenue between West 35th

and West 39th

Streets.

(Information provided by the New York City Planning Department website,

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/hyards/hymain.html)

The Highline

Once an active rail line connecting lower Manhattan with upstate New York, the now

unutilized Highline still stands above properties roughly 120 feet west of 10th

Avenue. Initially it

was elevated from Houston Street to West 33rd

Street; however, only the portion north of

Gransevoort Street still remains.

Historically the High-Line section of Manhattan’s Hells Kitchen was the central place in

NYC’s Meatpacking industry during the 1890-1960’s for distribution throughout the city. The

structure itself was completed in 1937 and moved freight into Manhattan until 1980, when it

became inactive. Since then, the once great roadway that connected the Hudson Rail Yards with

the West Village’s abandoned meatpacking district has become a weedy overpass. The City is

seeking the demolition of the Highline, yet preservationists and New Yorkers are currently

seeking to save and renovate the Highline creating a linear, elevated pedestrian park linking the

West Side of New York.

(Information provided by the Friends of the Highline website, available at http://www.thehighline.org)

Historic Highline, Manhattan, present conditions Top photo courtesy of Joel Sternfeld, ofhttp://www.thehighline.org (Accessed 04/02/04) Bottom photo taken by author (11/14/03)



SITE ANALYSIS / 67

Farley Building

Served by both road and rail, the New York General Post Office (the Farley Building,

1913) located between West 31st

and West 33rd

Streets and Eighth and Ninth Avenues is one of

the largest structures near the site. The architects McKim Mead & White designed the building as

a companion to their Pennsylvania Station, completed in 1910, in the hope of creating a grand

civic center. Six years earlier, the Pennsylvania Railroad had opened the first tunnel under the

Hudson, cutting, in the process, a broad swath towards the emerging two-block square station.

Despite its obvious architectural merit, and in the face of wide-scale public protest, the

Pennsylvania Railroad demolished the grand iron-and-glass structure, Pennsylvania Station, in

1963. In its place a subterranean Pennsylvania Station was rebuilt below a new Madison Square

Garden and complex of theaters and offices.

The Farley Post Office building is to be transformed into a new railroad terminus to

include a train station and commercial center in addition to some of the current postal facilities by

the architecture firm of SOM. The current Pennsylvania Station is overcrowded, and with

ridership expected to increase by 50 percent over the next 20 years this project would provide the

needed room to expand operations. Under an agreement with Amtrak, the USPS would continue

to use half of the building, while the eastern portion will have a grand lobby and lower concourse

descending to train platforms. There would be mid-block entrances at West 31st

and West 33rd

Streets and a sky-lit train concourse similar to the former Pennsylvania Station. Amtrak will move

The New Penn Station (Farley Building),Manhattan, scheduled to be completed in 2004 Photos courtesy of http://www.archcenter.ru/eng/council/PennStaon/default.asp



SITE ANALYSIS / 68

its rail operations to this new site. Construction began in 2000 with an estimated budget of $788

million.

(Information provided by the CCA Competition’s Site Conditions description, available at

http://www.cca.qc.ca/prize/e/default.htm and SOM’s website, http://www.som.com)

Javits Convention Center

The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center (1986) lies immediately north of the railyards.

The Javits Center was designed by the world-renowned architectural firm, I.M. Pei & Partners,

and opened for business on April 1, 1986. The Center is an imposing glass-enclosed edifice. It

overlooks the Hudson River from 34th to 39th Streets between 11th and 12th Avenues on the

West Side of Manhattan.

Many regard the Center as an architectural landmark due to its unique construction.

New York's Crystal Palace of 1853 -- which hosted "The Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations,"

the first World's Fair in the United States -- inspired the Javits Center's main entrance, a 60,000-

square-foot fifteen-story glass atrium.

The Center is divided into four levels and has 814,400 square feet of exhibit space, of

which 132,000 square feet can be configured into meeting rooms seating from 150 to 3,000

people. An additional 40 meeting rooms can seat smaller groups of 12 to 250.

Javits Convention Center, Manhattan, presentconditions

Photos taken by author (11/14/03)



SITE ANALYSIS / 69

Since it opened in 1986 the Javits Center has hosted more than 2,400 events. Nearly

1,400 of those have been major trade shows and/or conventions.

The Javits Center is considering an expansion of their facilities to compete with larger

convention centers across the country (Javits is currently ranked 18th

largest in the U.S,), The

Javits expansion plan calls for an increase in permanent exhibit space of 80% from 745,860 to

1,341,047 square feet. Javits officials want the center to expand north toward 42nd Street, in

order to offer show managers one large, continuous space. Javits has already purchased blocks

on 39th and 40th Streets, between 11th and 12th Avenues, with such an expansion in mind. The

proposed expansion is designed by HOK Architects.

(Information provided by the Javits Convention Center Expansion website, available at

www.javitscenter.com/expansion.htm)

Madison Square Garden

In 1960, plans were announced for a fourth Madison Square Garden Center. The new

site above Pennsylvania Station was selected. Straddling the underground Pennsylvania Station,

the Garden acts as a train station terminal complete with a sports and entertainment complex.

Garden IV opened on February 11, 1968, with a superstar-studded "Salute to the USO"

concert with "Chicken Delight," otherwise known as Bob Hope, "battling" former heavyweight

champion Rocky Marciano. The new sports and entertainment showplace was recognized as a



SITE ANALYSIS / 70

magnificent complex, representing a major achievement in modern construction with a circular

cable-suspended roof above the multi-sport arena facility (housing the NBA’s New York Knicks

and the NHL’s New York Rangers), and an adjacent 29 -story office building. It is the busiest

arena in the country, and its worldwide reputation for excitement is built on the wide variety of

headline attractions it hosts. Among the many highlights of the present Garden have been the

1976 and 1980 Democratic National Conventions; the special Youth in Concert visit by Pope Paul

II in 1979; the dramatic 1979 National Hockey League Stanley Cup playoff semifinal series won

by the Rangers over their New York rivals, the Islanders; "The Fight" in 1971 in which Joe Frazier

out-pointed Muhammad Ali; and sold out concerts by such diverse performers and artists as the

Rolling Stones, Elton John, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Luciano Pavarotti, Celia Cruz, Billy Joel,

Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen.

After an extensive renovation, which was completed in September of 1991, Madison

Square Garden introduced The Theater (formerly named The Paramount), a 5,600-seat multi-use

theater and two new restaurants, the Play By Play Sports Bar and the Club Restaurant, all

located directly within the facilities of Madison Square Garden itself. Today, following a multi-

million dollar, two-year renovation project in 1991, Madison Square Garden continues as the self-

proclaimed “world's most famous arena." The 20,000-seat arena has been completely refurbished

with new seating, specialty food concession areas, waiter/waitress service direct to the seats ofMadison Square Garden, Manhattan, presentconditions

Photos courtesy of David Sundburg, ofwww.esto.com/ sundberg1.htm and interior fromwww.bigeast.org/reference/ photos/mbball/sbp



SITE ANALYSIS / 71

"Club" ticket holders, a new state-of-the-art center scoreboard complete with four jumbo video

screens and 88 new luxury suites.

(Information provided by Munsey and Suppes,Ballparks website available at

http://www.sfo.com/~csuppes/NHL/misc/index.htm)

Chelsea Piers

Immediately south of the site lie the Chelsea Piers, originally constructed in 1910,

stretching from Piers 59 to 62. Over the next fifty years, they became New York’s principal

passenger port. Designed to serve the traffic of transatlant ic ocean liners such as the Titanic, the

Chelsea Piers became the first point of arrival for thousands of European immigrants. After

World War II, however, passenger planes and the growing reliance upon large container ships

requiring vast storage areas made the piers obsolete. In 1994 the refurbished Chelsea Piers

were reopened as a vast, high-tech sports complex.


http://www.cca.qc.ca/prize/e/default.htm)

Chelsea Piers, Manhattan, present conditions

Photos courtesy of the New York City PlanningDepartment



SITE ANALYSIS / 72

Starrett-Lehigh Building

Beyond the piers, other notable architectural structures near the site include the 1931

Starrett-Lehigh Building, designed as the first attempt to combine a nineteenth-century rail-freight

terminal with a twentieth-century trucking facility. Located between 26th

and 27th

streets and 11th

and 12th

avenues, the 1.8-million-square-foot building housed those businesses requiring entire

floors for truck-size shipments. (Attracted to the light, open spaces, Buckminster Fuller was an

early tenant.) Delivery vehicles entered from 27th

Street onto two huge elevators, which then

carried them up into the nineteen-story building. Lewis Mumford, writing in the New Yorker called

the architects Cory & Cory’s work ‘a victory for engineering.’


http://www.cca.qc.ca/prize/e/default.htm)

Starrett-Lehigh Building, Manhattan, 1931

Photos courtesy of www.thehighline.org/gallery.html (11/12/03) andwww.mcny.org/Exhibitions/abbott/mw spage.ht, Abbott File 286, Photo taken 3/01/38



SITE ANALYSIS / 73

LOCATION MAP OF HUDSON YARDS

Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), State of New York website,

available at http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/capconstr/7ext/draft_scoping.pdf



SITE ANALYSIS / 74

SITE MAP – PROPOSED SITE LIMITS





SITE ANALYSIS / 75

SITE CONTEXT MAP





SITE ANALYSIS / 76

LAND USE MAP

Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), State of New York website,available athttp://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/capconstr/7ext/dra

scoping.pdf



SITE ANALYSIS / 77

PROPOSED SUBWAY EXTENSIONS





SITE ANALYSIS / 78

Site Precedents

‘The Banks’ Masterplan, Cincinnati, Ohio – Urban Design Associates

(1999 - )

When the City/County Riverfront Steering Committee chartered the Riverfront Advisors

Commission in February 1999, they were charged with creating a comprehensive development

program to build on the bold riverfront initiatives being undertaken by the community at the time.

The most dramatic initiative was the reconfiguration of Fort Washington Way to make land

available for The Banks, a new, large-scale redevelopment located between Cincinnati’s two new

sports stadia and connected to the riverfront, creating eight city blocks of land ready for

development with streets and utilities in place. The right plan could infuse new vitality, enhance

the quality of life, catalyze economic growth, and renew community pride.

The Cincinnati Riverfront Advisory Commission's recommendations are designed to

reconnect the city’s downtown and the waterfront and create a long-lasting development on the

riverfront. The goal of The Banks development is that it will create a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week,

diverse, pedestrian-friendly urban neighborhood with a mix of uses, including residential housing,

specialty retail stores, restaurants and entertainment, office and boutique hotel space, public

green space and parking, to create a quality riverfront destination.

The Banks development is enhanced and better connected to the central business distric t

by adding infrastructure and amenity improvements including pedestrian plazas covering most of

The Banks Masterplan, Cincinnati

Images courtesy of The Port Authority ofCincinnati,http://www.cincinnatiport.org/pa_pg5A.html



SITE ANALYSIS / 79

Fort Washington Way (the stretch of partially below-grade highway connecting I-71 and I-75), a

major new anchor attraction — The Boardwalk at the Banks — on the west side of the

development, and exciting, usable green spaces and amenities. Located between Great

American Ballpark and Paul Brown Stadium, The Banks also includes such current attractions as

the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and the National Steamboat Monument.

The design of The Banks neighborhood will foster a diverse, welcoming, pedestrian-friendly urban

character and create a striking visual impression — a picture postcard of Cincinnati.

‘The Banks’ development goal is to connect the city to its riverfront and to create an

image of Cincinnati, through open green space, riverfront connections, and a diverse, 24-hour,

seven-day-a-week, pedestrian-friendly urban neighborhood with a mix of uses. The goals of this

thesis parallel those of the Banks development. Cincinnati is looking for something that will

infuse life into a previously derelict part of the city, by using sports stadia, hotels, office, and

housing to bring people to this part of the city, just as this thesis is proposing. By sinking and

covering the essential infrastructure (parking and the highway), Cincinnati has gained a large part

of their city back for development and a chance to connect the city to an important part of its

heritage: the river.

(All information obtained from The Port Authority of Cincinnati, http://www.cincinnatiport.org/pa_pg5A.html)

The Banks Masterplan, Cincinnati

Image courtesy of The Port Authority ofCincinnati,http://www.cincinnatiport.org/pa_pg5A.html



SITE ANALYSIS / 80

Victory District, Dallas, Texas - Koetter Kim & Associates

(1999 - )

“Victory is envisioned to create a new urban center with a carefully craftedcollection of emerging and reputation retail, distinctive dining, class-A officespace, dramatic residential units, a cutting edge hotel and signatureentertainment venues. This urban environment and the lifestyle it will create willbe a driving force in making Victory a true ‘destination location’.”

-Quote from the Victory District’s website, http://www.victorydallas.com

The area now know as Victory District in Dallas, Texas was once a derelict industrial

quarter, the site of a power plant, a rail yard, a meat packing plant and a landfill. Since then, the

site had been cleared of buildings except for the large power station. But what once was a

polluted brownfield has since become a new district in Dallas, helping to unify the city’s downtown

districts.

Koetter Kim’s masterplan for the Victory District began with an analysis of the city of

Dallas and its series of distinct quarters – the central business district, the West End (now a

designated Historic District), the Market Center and the 60-acre Arts District, claimed to be the

largest cultural quarter in the USA. Unfortunately, large swathes of rail tracks, freight yards, and

urban freeways separated these districts from one another.

Developing the Victory District was seen as a way of linking together core districts and

giving central Dallas a more unified composition. The Stemmons Freeway and the edge of the

historic West End bound the 65-acre site.

Victory District, computer model illustrating axialconnections to and from the downtown core.

Images courtesy of von Gerkan Marg, in KennethPowell’s City Transformed.



SITE ANALYSIS / 81

Their masterplan proposes a mixed-use (office, residential, retail, entertainment, hotel,

and leisure), street -oriented, largely pedestrian environment. American Airlines Arena, the new

20,000-seat home of the NBA’s Mavericks and the NHL’s Stars, opened in 2001 as the

centerpiece and anchor of the new development, as well as marking the first phase of

construction on the former brownfield site.

Koetter Kim see their proposals as a framework for development, rather than a set of

rigid guidelines. The basis of this framework is a series of city blocks that address the street, but

are seen as ‘building parcels’, allowing developers flexibility to combine or divide the parcels to

suit a particular client or program. A pattern of open spaces threads its way throughout the new

district unifying and connecting the neighborhood.

The Victory District is relevant to this thesis and the Hudson Yards site because of its

attempt to reclaim land from urban infrastructure to unify and connect districts within an urban

environment. Koetter Kim’s concept of a ‘framework for development’ allows for a masterplan

scheme similar to the Hudson Yards site. Only the western-most portion of the exposed storage

yards will be fully developed for this thesis, while the remaining portion of the site will use a

similar masterplan framework, to create a flexible massing composition.

(Information obtained from the Victory District website, available at www.victorydallas.com and Kenneth

Powell’s book, City Transformed: Urban Architecture at the Beginning of the 21 st Century, New York: Neues

Publishing Company, 2000. pp. 26-29)

Concept sketch illustrating connection to thedowntown core (top); aerial view of mixed-useproposal (middle); perspective view of model(bottom)

Images courtesy of Koetter Kim, in KennethPowell’s City Transformed.



SITE ANALYSIS / 82

Stutttgart Station Quarter and Avenue 21 – von Gerkan Marg und Partner

(1996 - )

Frankfurt’s main train station, the Hauptbahnhof, is one of the grandest in Europe, with

three huge arched iron and glass sheds (completed in 1888) symbolizing the three railway

companies that were united there – a symbol of the new united Germany of the Kaisers.

Prefacing the train sheds, G.P Eggert’s concourse building is itself a powerful symbol of the 19th

-

century railway, with a great central arched window expressing the train shed behind. A few

blocks away stands a major freight station, served by another tangle of rail tracks and yards.

Eggert’s concourse and train sheds are valued historic structures and the architects

faced the challenge of integrating them into a recast through station, with tracks sunk 66 feet

below the streets. The concourse and train sheds are being retained, yet will function now as a

train stop instead of a terminus.

The reconstruction of the Hauptbahnhof is linked to an ambitious plan for a new mixed-

use district on reclaimed railway lands. The freight station will be completely demolished and

replaced by an underground facility, helping to open up 170 acres of development land, with

almost as much land secured from the redevelopment of the main station. A new

Messeboulevard will be laid out on the site, a planted pedestrian route, modeled on Barcelona’s

Ramblas, with trees and water and bordered with new office and residential blocks. Beyond theStuttgart Station Quarter, proposed Masterplan(above) and existing railyards (below).

Images courtesy of von Gerkan Marg, in KennethPowell’s City Transformed.



SITE ANALYSIS / 83

Hauptbahnhof, a new ‘central park’ almost two miles long, with lavish planting will form the focal

point for a new mixed-use district of the city.

Von Gerkan Marg’s masterplan for the area around the Hauptbahnhof train station

combines a radical restructuring of rail facilities with a bold attempt to repair the damage done in

the past by the incursions of the railway into the city. Von Gerkan Marg’s inclusion of a historic

structure into a large modern development, as well as the infusion of ‘parkspace’ or open space

and mixed-use development over existing active railyards, strongly parallels this thesis’s inclusion

of the historic Highline and active MTA Railyards into the overall design proposal.

(Information obtained from Kenneth Powell’s book, City Transformed: Urban Architecture at the

Beginning of the 21st Century, New York: Neues Publishing Company, 2000. pp. 194-199)

Phased development from railway cuts to thecreation of a new park and areas of office andhousing built ‘over-the-tracks’.

Images courtesy of von Gerkan Marg, in

Kenneth Powell’s City Transformed.



DESIGN PROGRAM ANAYLSIS

A Mixed-Use Facility and NFL Stadium

“…the idea of building a football stadium with another programme grouped around it. That other

programme ensures that when there is no football scheduled there is enough programme left

over to provide good public space in the surrounding area.”

-Wiel Arets, in The Stadium: The Architecture of Mass Sport,

edited by Michelle Provoost, Rotterdam: NAI Publishers, 2000. p. 175



DESIGN PROGRAM / 85

Program Selection

The programmatic element of the thesis design project is a crucial element of this thesis.

The themes of this thesis will be explored in a conceptual, mixed-use development that explores

the concept of a major sports facility as a nucleus of urban life while integrating a multiplicity of

uses seemingly “attached” to the facility.

The design project is sited over the Hudson MTA Railyards on Manhattan in New York

City. This site suggests a program that will enhance and serve the surrounding neighborhood

while mending the large gaping holes in the urban fabric.

A ‘masterplan’, or framework for development, will be established for the two eastern

exposed railway cuts from 11th to 9th Avenue bound by 30th and 33rd Streets, while a



developed over the western-most storage yard near the Huds on River. The remainder of the



storage yards. In this sense, the stadium becomes a functioning entity of city fabric where people

can be seen every day of the week, not just on event days.



DESIGN PROGRAM / 86

Design Objectives

• Operational Flexibility: The stadium and site should have the capability to adapt and

evolve in response to fluid market conditions as well as changes in entertainment and

sports venues.

• Civic Identity: The stadium and site should create a distinctive identity through details

associated with localized history, building materials and art, and a sense of place

conducive to the unique urban setting or its environment.

• Neighborhood Character: The stadium and site should promote building a neighborhood

that creates a vibrant street life, human scale at street level, and buildings and public

spaces harmonized together.

• Personal experience: The stadium and site should create a pleasant, inviting experience

for both the event attendees and those in the area during non-event times through

attention to mix of uses, safety, greenspace, and pedestrian friendly streets and plazas.

• Urban connectivity: The stadium and site should contribute to the area’s transit

opportunities, including walking, biking, mass transit, and automobile, as well as

providing a direct connection to the city street grid pattern.

• Public Spaces: The stadium and site should provide well-designed, comfortable public

spaces, and be should be integrated into the public realm of streetscapes and parks.



DESIGN PROGRAM / 87

Description of Primary Spaces

STADIUM REQUIREMENTS

SPECTATOR FACILITES

1. Seating

a. A total number of 70 000 spectator seating spaces, comprised of self-rising

armchair seats, wheelchair spaces and suite seats, shall be provided.

Minimum sightline clearance shall be 2-1/4” above the eye level of the

spectator in the preceding row. Minimum tread width in seating areas shall

be 33 inches, and the first row of seats shall be 5 feet 6 inches above the

field; riser height shall vary from 6 inches minimum to 21 inches maximum;

the maximum number of seats per row shall be 24; and the minimum aisle

width shall be 48 inches. The typical seat width shall be 19 inches for

general spectator seating, 21 inches will be the typical seat width for club

seating.

b. Handrails shall be provided at all vertical aisles in the stands, portals, and at

the front of all seating sections and behind the back row of seats adjacent to

concourses.

c. Wheelchair seating areas for wheelchair patrons and a companion shall be

provided and distributed around the facility at all levels. Total capacity to be

determined, provisions shall be in compliance with the Americans with

Disabilities Act (A.D.A.)



DESIGN PROGRAM / 88

2. Public Toilets

a. Toilet rooms shall be provided for men and women at every concourse level

and appropriately distributed. The ratio of spectators to fixtures shall be

based on 50% male and 50% female attendance. Fixtures shall be provided

based on the following ratios:

Lavatories 1 per 300 men (233)

1 per 200 women (350)

Water closets 1 per 500 men (140)

1 per 90 women (780) Urinals 1 per 100 men (700)

b. An attendant closet with a service sink providing hot and cold water and

storage shall be provided in each public toilet room.

c. Mirrors with shelves, soap dispensers, paper dispensers, and toilet partitions

shall be provided at all public toilets. Purse holders and lounge benches

shall be provided in women’s unit, with changing tables provided at all public

toilets.

d. Appropriate toilet facilities, including grab bars, etc. shall be provided for the

physically disabled.

e. All toilet rooms shall be equipped with heat to maintain a minimum 55º F

temperature, general lighting and exhaust. Hot and cold water service shall



DESIGN PROGRAM / 89

be provided for all concourse public toilet rooms. A hose bib shall be

provided for general maintenance.

2a. Drinking Fountains

a. Frost proof, non-refrigerated drinking fountains (bubbler type) shall be

provided at the field and all concourse levels in the amount of one for every

two toilet rooms.

b. Refrigerated drinking fountains will be provided at the club level, locker

rooms, press and administrative offices.

2b. Unisex/Family Toilet

a. Appropriate toilet facilities, including grab bars, etc. shall be provided for the

physically disabled of family use in the amount of two per concourse.

3. Concession Stands

a. The following shall be subject to the recommendations and/or reasonable

requests of the concessionaire.

i. Concession stands shall be located at all concourse levels and

appropriately distributed.

ii. Space for one serving station of approximately 5 linear feet shall be

provided for each 200 spectators. (1750 linear feet)

iii. Space shall be provided in each stand for ice machines, walk-in

coolers and exhaust systems where required.

iv. Appropriate space shall be available within the facility for specialty

food stands, and upscale service related to club and VIP spaces.



DESIGN PROGRAM / 90

v. Appropriate space shall be available within the facility for a future

stadium restaurant.

4. Novelty Stands

a. Permanent novelty stands shall be appropriately distributed throughout the

facility offering a traditional range of sale items as follows:

i. One stand of approximately 1200 sq. ft. shall be located in the

southeast corner of the main concourse level.

ii. Two stands of approximately 200 sq. ft. shall be located on the club

level.

iii. One stand of approximately 200 sq. ft. shall be located on the upper

suite level.

iv. Three stands of approximately 200 sq. ft. shall be located on the

upper concourse level at the three major entry/exit points.

b. The stands shall be completely finished with appropriate display shelving and

equipment for operations.

4A. Team Hall of Fame – Variable square footage

a. Space for the future development of a “Hall of Fame” shall be provided.

4B. Novelty Store – 5000 sq. ft.

a. A novelty store shall be provided to offer a more expanded selection of

novelty and sports memorabilia items. Access shall be accommodated from



DESIGN PROGRAM / 91

inside the stadium as well as allowing access from outside on non-game

days. Secured storage spaces shall be provided.

5. Vendors Commissaries

a. These facilities for food handling and storage shall be located on each

concourse level and appropriately distributed (approximately one per

quadrant). The commissaries shall be designed to provide service based on

one vendor per 200 spectators and a minimum of 15 square feet per vendor.

b. Vendor commissaries shall be complete with finishes and all equipment

necessary for operation.

6. Vertical Circulation

a. Ramps shall be the primary method of moving spectators vertically.

Pedestrian ramps shall have a maximum 1:12 slope and adequate widths to

provide for easy accessibility to and from all concourse levels. All ramps

shall be designed to accommodate small vehicles commonly used for

stadium maintenance and concession operations.

7. Escalators

a. Escalators shall be provided to access the club and upper concourse levels.

8. Public telephones

a. Space and conduit for public telephones shall be provided at all concourse

levels.



DESIGN PROGRAM / 92

9. Automated Teller Machines

a. Provide space and provisions within the facility for the installation of

automated teller machines at several locations.

10. Ticket windows

a. Ticket windows shall be provided and conveniently located for event ticket

sales. These ticket windows shall be in addition to ticket windows associated

with the main ticket office. Counters, cash drawers, changeable letter

panels, heat, lighting, and electrical outlets shall be provided. Handrails for

ground control should be provided. Four windows for advance ticket sales

shall be conveniently located and accessible from within the stadium at

public concourse level. A press entrance will be provided as well as four

windows for ticket exchange and will-call windows. If feasible, the advance

sale windows shall be adjacent to the main ticket office. A minimum of 24

windows for event ticket sales shall be provided.

11. Turnstiles

a. Portable, reversible, registering turnstiles and space for ticket takers shall be

provided. One turnstile for every 1500 seats shall be provided. Turnstiles

shall be covered to provide protection. Storage space for checking or

confiscation of items not permitted in the stadium and day of game

promotional material shall be provided. An exit turnstile shall be provided at

each major entrance.



DESIGN PROGRAM / 93

12. Stadium Suites

a. Luxury Suites. Approximately 100 suites on two levels shall be provided at

the club level along the sidelines only. These facilities shall be enclosed

lounge spaces, with private toilets designed to be accessible by physically

disabled individuals and shall have operable horizontal sliding windows on

the field side. Seats for event viewing along with a wet bar and under

counter refrigerator and icemaker shall also be provided. Depending on final

stadium geometry, suite viewing seat capacities shall be 12 or 16 seats.

Television and stadium audio provisions shall be incorporated.

b. An owner’s suite shall be designed at a center endzone location to provide

for 40 viewing seats. Separate men and women’s restroom facilities shall be

provided. All other amenities described for stadium suites shall be provided.

c. Two additional 16-person owner’s suites shall be provided on each side of

the main suite.

d. Two governor’s suites of 16-person capacity shall be provided on each side

of the owner’s suites.

e. A foyer type space shall be provided connecting the bank of five suites listed

above. A high level of finish and furnishings shall be provided compatible

with the suites.

f. A small kitchen for food preparation used exclusively by the owner’s and

governor’s suites shall be provided in vicinity of above-mentioned suites.

Approximate size to be 1000 sq. ft.

g. A 16-person visiting Owner’s suite shall be provided and may be located

adjacent to the press box.



DESIGN PROGRAM / 94

h. Day of game rental suite for approximately 50-person capacity shall be

provided. All other amenities described for stadium suites shall be provided

except restroom facilities.

i. NCNB 32 person suite shall be provided located on the lower club level along

the home sideline at the 50-yard line.

j. Facilities for housekeeping of suites shall be provided at both suite levels and

appropriately distributed.

k. Provide appropriate facilities for a catering kitchen at the club level.

Approximate size to be 5000 sq. ft.

l. Two suite-catering staging areas shall be provided and conveniently located.

Approximate size to be 1000 sq. ft. each.

13. Club Seating

a. Approximately 8000 club level seats will be located at the club level along the

sidelines with access to exclusive lounge areas with bar, grill, and toilet

facilities.

14. Security – 1500 sq. ft.

a. Provide office facilities for the permanent stadium security force as well as a

command post for the game day security force. This space shall be

equipped with a temporary holding area and a toilet room. Two remote

facilities with a view of the stadium bowl will be provided for security

personnel to observe patrons.



DESIGN PROGRAM / 95

15. Fan Accommodations – 100 sq. ft. (4 required)

a. Accommodation booths on the main and upper concourse shall be included

to provide information and general assistance to spectators. Space for two

staff members shall be included. Appropriate counter, casework, and pull

down shutter shall be provided.

16. First Aid

a. Provide space for two first aid rooms at each level of the facility for minor

medical treatments. Each to be approximately 200 sq. ft. Access to

ambulance parking at the service level through non-public areas shall be

provided.

17. Sound Systems

a. Provide for a complete sound system serving the entire stadium to include

central cluster and ancillary system loudspeaker system, auxiliary speakers

for concourse, lockers, offices, etc., for event announcing, paging, music,

and broadcasting.

18. Elevators

a. Passenger elevators shall serve all levels of the stadium. All passenger

elevators shall be accessible to wheelchairs and persons with disabilities.

b. One elevator shall be provided for non-game day access to the lobby of the

Administrative Offices. Capacity to be 3500 lbs., 350 fpm.

c. One elevator shall be for the exclusive use for the press at appropriate times

during events. Capacity to be 3500 lbs, 350 fpm.



DESIGN PROGRAM / 96

d. Four elevators shall be provided for suite holders (plus provisions for tow

more upon future development of the club level). Capacity to be 3500 lbs,

350 fpm.

e. Two large freight elevators (10 000 lbs, 150 fpm) shall be provided, near the

loading dock and concession operations, and at the opposite end of the

ground level footprint.

19. Graphics

a. At a minimum, directional graphics shall be provided for the entire complex.

The signs listed below, but not limited to, shall be provided:

i. Identification of stadium entrances including ticket booths, turnstiles,

and special entrances.

ii. Signage within the stadium to indicate concourse levels, seating

section, aisles, and seat numbers.

iii. Identification of toilet rooms, first aid, exits, and other public facilities.

iv. Concession stand signage shall be coordinated with the total

graphics program.

v. Site signs as required by site requirements.

vi. Stadium directories shall be provided as appropriate.

20. Lighting

a. Adequate general illumination shall be provided throughout the stadium for

concourses, ramps, portals, etc. as well as required emergency lighting.



DESIGN PROGRAM / 97

21. Fire Protection

a. Fire protection equipment such as sprinklers, standpipes, etc. shall be

provided as required by applicable building and safety codes.

22. Scoreboards/Ad Panels

a. A complete, electrically operated, remote controlled, illuminated scoreboard

system with instant replay capability shall be located in each endzone. The

scoreboard system includes all remote control equipment located in the

Press Box, control-wiring conduit from the Press Box to scoreboards, the

scoreboards electrical service and supporting structures and enclosures.



DESIGN PROGRAM / 98

PRESS FACILITIES

1. Press Box

a. Press facilities accommodating the news media shall be provided and

appropriately located and oriented within the stadium for football. Television

monitors shall be provided throughout.

b. Two areas shall be provided in press box: One for the working press and

one for the broadcast media.

c. Open-tray conduit for television cables shall be provided from all television

camera and broadcasting booth locations to television van parking locations.

i. Working Press – 3000 sq. ft.

1. Stations for approximately 175 writers shall be provided.

This area shall contain built-in writing counter, seating,

electrical and telephone outlets, sound system and closed

circuit television. Coat racks and lockable book lockers for

writers will be provided.

ii. Television Broadcasting – 320 sq. ft.

1. Provide a booth with built-in counter, special acoustical

treatment on walls and ceiling and space for 50-yard line

cameras. Additional television camera platforms shall be

located at the 25-yard lines, each end zone and reverse

angle.



DESIGN PROGRAM / 99

iii. Broadcasting – 140 sq. ft. (4 required)

1. Four broadcasting booths suitable for TV or radio with built-

in counters, special acoustical treatment on walls and

ceiling, and operable sash.

iv. Coaches – 200 sq. ft. (2 required)

1. Spaces for home and visiting team coaches, 10 seats each,

shall contain built-in writing desks and telephone

connections to player benches and operable sash.

v. Photographers – 200 sq. ft.

1. Open on the field side, a minimum of 7 spaces shall

accommodate photographers. Counters shall be provided.

vi. Instant Replay Booth – 140 sq. ft.

1. Provide enclosed space for instant replay officials and

equipment.

vii. Scoreboard Control Room – 620 sq. ft.

1. This space shall be provided with built-in writing counters. All

wiring, control panels, and other equipment required for

operation of the scoreboard equipment and instant replay

boards.



DESIGN PROGRAM / 100

viii. Public Address Announcer – 100 sq. ft (2 required, adjacent)

1. This space for announcer and assistants with built-in counter

will contain all controls required for a public address system

serving the entire stadium. Public address booth to have

operable sash.

ix. Workroom – 240 sq. ft.

1. Space adjacent to the working areas should be provided for

statisticians, document reproduction, and fax equipment.

x. Press Club – 2500 sq. ft.

1. For press personnel, this facility shall contain dining facilities

seating approximately 175 persons and rough-in plumbing

and electrical service for food and beverage service. The

space shall be adjacent to the working press area in the

press box.

xi. Equipment

1. Adequate space for sound system, telephone, electrical, and

television equipment shall be provided.

xii. Toilets

1. Toilet facilities for the press shall be provided for men and

women, including attendant closet.




2. Field Level Media Facilities

a. Press Room – 300 sq. ft.

i. Space for use of writers during practice should be located in the

vicinity of the home team facilities. Provisions for typewriters,

telephones, refreshments, etc., shall be provided.

b. Player Interview Room – 200 sq. ft. (2 required)

i. Interview space for television broadcasts shall be provided

convenient to both home and visitor’s locker rooms. This room shall

be accessible by television cable tray and electrical requirements

shall be provided.

c. TV Studio – 800 sq. ft.

i. Space will be provided for the future development of a television

studio.

d. Darkrooms – 200 sq. ft. (2 required)

i. Two darkrooms located at the playing field level with counter and

sink for developing film. Additional equipment shall be provided by

others.

e. Television Van Parking

i. Parking for television vans shall be provided adjacent to the stadium

as close to the press box facilities as feasible. Adjacent electrical

and telephone equipment rooms shall be provided.




ADMINISTRATIVE FACILITIES – 35,500 sq. ft.

Administrative space for the home team and the stadium operation shall provide for

reception, general office, executive offices, ticket office and sales, vault, counting rooms,

meeting rooms, switchboard, storage, and equipment space.

The entrance to the administrative offices and the ticket office shall be located at the

ground level and shall be accessible to the public. Parking for visitors and staff shall be

provided.

Space shall also be available for future development.

Allocation of administrative office space is as follows:

Stadium Operations 8000 sq. ft.

Home Football Team 13,000 sq. ft.

• Reception/Gallery 1000 sq. ft.

• Executive Offices 600 sq. ft. (5 each)

• Marketing/Administrative Offices 1500 sq. ft.

• Boardroom 500 sq. ft. (4 required)

• Restrooms 250 sq. ft. each

• Offices 500 sq. ft. (10 required)




Ticket Office 2000 sq. ft.

• Reception 200 sq. ft.

• Ticket Sales 500 sq. ft.

•

Staff Area 200 sq. ft.• Private Office 200 sq. ft.

• Open Offices 600 sq. ft.

• Vault 200 sq. ft.

• Counting Room 100 sq. ft.

Ticketing offices and support facilities (toilet, valet, sales, etc.) to be separate from

stadium operation but connected to the non-event day ticket windows.




TEAM FACILITIES

Team facilities shall have direct access to the playing field. Passenger elevators shall

provide access to the Press Box and Administrative Offices. Locker rooms shall be

completely finished and furnished unless otherwise indicated.

A service tunnel for access by truck or bus (minimum 16’-0” clear width) shall be provided

to the team locker facilities.

1. Home Team’s Locker Room – 27,000 sq. ft.

a. Locker room including 60 – 42”x36” lockers, stools, and marker boards to be

provided. (4000 sq. ft.)

b. Shower, toilet room, sauna, steam bath and drying area. Twenty

showerheads, 4 water closets, 4 urinals, 8 lavatories and mirrors shall be


c. Training Room/Storage- electrical and plumbing rough-in for training

equipment and wet area for hydrotherapy to be provided (2600 sq. ft.)

d. Head Coaches’ locker, shower, and toilet. Lockers for 10 coaches, 4

showers, 2 water closets, 2 urinals, and 3 lavatories shall be provided. (1400

sq. ft.)

e. Equipment storage, plumbing and electrical rough-in for laundry equipment

shall be provided. (2500 sq. ft.)

f. Meeting rooms (7) divisible space with projection screen, writing and

tackable surfaces. (4500 sq. ft.)

g. Weight room (8000 sq. ft.)




h. Player lounge (500 sq. ft.)

i. Handball courts (2) – (2000 sq. ft.)

j. Therapy pool (optional) – (2800 sq. ft.)

2. Visitor’s Locker Room – 6000 sq. ft. (2 required)

a. Locker room including 50 – 36”x36” lockers, stools, and marker boards to be


b. Shower and toilet room. Twenty showerheads, 3 water closets, 3 urinals, 6

lavatories and mirrors shall be provided. (900 sq. ft.)

c. Training Room- electrical and plumbing rough-in for training equipment (600

sq. ft.)

d. Assistant Coaches’ locker, shower, and toilet. Lockers for 10 coaches, 4

showers, 2 water closets, 2 urinals, and 3 lavatories shall be provided. (600

sq. ft.)

e. Head Coaches’ office and dressing room. Shower, water closet, and

lavatory. (200 sq. ft.)

f. Equipment/Circulation (700 sq. ft.)

3. Officials’ Locker Room – 600 sq. ft. (2 required)

Separate locker rooms shall be provided for game officials and chair crew.

a. Locker room including 10lockers. (350 sq. ft.)

b. Shower and toilet room. 3 showers, 1 water closet, urinal, and 2 lavatories

with mirror and shelf shall be provided. (250 sq. ft.)




4. Staff Locker Room – 800 sq. ft. (2 required)

Separate locker rooms shall be provided for men and women.

a. Locker room including 10 lockers (350 sq. ft.)

b. 2 showers, 2 urinals, 2 water closets, and 2 lavatories with mirror and shelf

for men. 2 showers, 4 water closets, and 2 lavatories with mirror and shelf

for women. (450 sq. ft.)

5. Field Equipment Storage Room – 5000 sq. ft.

Adjacent to field and home team locker room.

6. Field Toilet – 85 sq. ft. (2 required)

Adjacent to field, 1 water closet, urinal and lavatory and refrigerated drinking

fountain shall be provided.

7. Players’ Relatives Waiting Room – 1000 sq. ft.

Post game waiting room with toilet facilities for men and women. Location to be

in vicinity of locker room and player’s lounge.

8. Team Photographer Platforms (2 required)

Enclosed booths for team photographers located at the top of the upper level

seating at the 50-yard line and end zone. Space for 5 photographers with

counter and electrical power.




9. X-Ray Room – 400 sq. ft.

Adjacent to team facilities and accessible from the playing field. This facility shall

make provisions for x-ray equipment for use by both teams during games and by

the home team at all other times.

10. Laundry Facilities

Adjacent to the home team equipment facilities provide 2-60 lb. Washers and 3-

100 lb. Dryers for use by the team, including any casework items required.

STADIUM SERVICE FACILITIES

The stadium service facilities shall be located within the stadium as appropriate. Access

by service vehicles shall be provided to all facilities. These facilities shall relate to the

freight elevators provided within the stadium.

1. Concession Storage – 15,000 sq. ft.

Enclosed space for development of offices, food handling, preparation, and

storage facilities. Basic electrical and plumbing rough-in for kitchen equipment,

freezers, coolers, etc., shall be included.




2. Concession Lockers – 2000 sq. ft.

Adequate toilet facilities and space for dressing and uniform storage for

approximately 500 male and female employees. Double tier lockers shall be

provided.

3. Stadium Personnel Lockers – 2000 sq. ft.

Adequate toilet, dressing, and uniform storage for approximately 500 male and

female employees. Double tier lockers shall be provided.

4. General Use Locker Room – 3500 sq. ft. (3 required)

These facilities shall be used by bands, cheerleaders, and others requiring

dressing facilities. Double tier lockers shall be provided. The three adjacent

spaces shall be divisible by the use of operable partitions, connecting doors, or

similar means, based on the needs of the using group.

5. Employee Break Room – 1500 sq. ft.

Space shall be provided with tables, chairs, and vending to accommodate

approximately 100 persons. This may be used by permanent stadium staff as

well as groups on event day activities.

6. Maintenance Shop – 2000 sq. ft.

Enclosed facilities for general maintenance of the stadium. Heating, ventilating,

and general lighting shall be provided.




7. Maintenance Locker – 1000 sq. ft.

Twenty lockers plus toilet and shower facilities for male and female stadium

maintenance personnel and field maintenance personnel. Finished space

including heating, air conditioning, and lighting shall be provided.

8. Field Maintenance Office – 250 sq. ft.

Office for field maintenance supervisor with adjacent toilet facilities. The space

shall be enclosed, finished, heated, air conditioned, and lighted. A janitor closet

with service sink shall be adjacent to the office.

8. Field Maintenance Storage – 5000 sq. ft.

Provided for storage of equipment and materials required for maintenance of the

playing field. General lighting and security fence shall be provided. This area

must be within the stadium and adjacent to the playing field.

9. Loading Dock

Two truck docks with manual dock levelers and locks shall be provided at the

entrance to the service area. The dock shall be adjacent to the concession and

maintenance facilities, and adjacent to a freight elevator.

10. Trash Compactors

Provide two mechanical, self-loading trash compactors, one wet and one dry,

permanently located at the exterior of the stadium near the loading dock to

process all refuse.






PARKING

Parking will be provided for the administrative facilities and team facilities, preferably

below grade for secured access.

Parking for spectators will not be provided onsite for the stadium. The HOK Consulting

Team conducted a survey for parking resources in the Hudson Yards area in 1996. With the

MTA Rail Yard as the destination, there are parking facilities with 4,707 spaces within a five

minute walk of the site, 11,833 spaces within 10 minutes, 20,310 spaces within 15 minutes and

24,893 spaces within 20 minutes. The sample surveys showed that about 40 percent of available

off-street spaces are unoccupied on weekend and week nights at 6 to 7 p.m.; and 15 percent are

unoccupied at noontime on a weekday. This amounts to about 5,000-8,000 unoccupied spaces

on weekends and weeknights within 10-15 minutes, and 2,000-3,000 spaces weekday midday.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS

RETAIL/COMMERCIAL TBD

RESTAURANTS TBD

OFFICE/ADMINISTRATIVE SPACE TBD




Program Precedents

Petco Park, San Diego, California – Antoine Predock, design architect with HOK Sport

(1998 – 2004)

San Diego’s new baseball park, Petco Park, is being developed within twenty-six blocks

of a part of the East Village, a section of the city’s most blighted area. The goal of the project and

the city was to create a 24-7 neighborhood downtown. A kind of ‘sports village’, was created to

integrate other programs into the ballpark to create a neighborhood complex, not just a new

sports venue.

Despite being situated near the waterfront and San Diego’s convention center, the East

Village was mainly an underutilized warehouse district. The city and developers are now creating

$593.3 million worth of hotel, residential, retail, and parking structures surrounding the ballpark.

The ballpark ‘village’, also contains a square-block park and a tree-lined boulevard, and is

serviced by four trolley stops, helping to create a transit-oriented district.

The project includes the Omni San Diego Hotel and Metropolitan Condominiums, a 32-

story hotel and residential project across from the new ballpark. Hotel guests and Metropolitan

residents will enjoy direct access into the Ballpark via a pedestrian sky bridge extending from the

fourth floor above Seventh Avenue. A six-story banquet and convention wing will adjoin the mainPetco Park, San Diego, opening Spring 2004.

Images courtesy of

http://www.ballparksofbaseball.com/ (top) an

http://www.sandiego.padres.mlb.com/ (bottom)




tower and include state-of-the-art conference and ballroom facilities as well as a 13,000-square-

foot rooftop terrace with swimming pool.

Also proposed is the Boutique Hotel, the official gateway from the Gaslamp Quarter to

the Ballpark District. This 203-room hotel will feature a 14,000 square foot pool deck and terrace,

and 11,400 square feet of restaurant and specialty meeting space. Located on the corner of 6th

Avenue and J Street, this mid-priced hotel will create a niche to serve the expanding Convention

Center and tourist markets in downtown San Diego. Nearly 800 residential units, a 1,109-space

garage, and a new chilled water plant will also be included in the ballpark village.

( All information provided by an arti cle inEngineering News-Record by Nadine M. Post called, “Focus on

Sports Villages: San Diego’s Ballpark Neighborhood is a Grand Slam Against Slums.” 8 March 2004.

http://enr.construction.com/features/buildings/archives/040208a.asp and the San Diego Padres official team

website, http://sandiego.padres.mlb.com)




Euroborg Stadium, Groningen, the Netherlands – Wiel Arets, architect

(To be completed in 2005)

In recent years, the city of Groningen has been trying to establish an image as the

‘Capital of the North’ of the Netherlands, and is undergoing a metamorphosis. A new stadium by

architect Wiel Arets has been proposed for the city’s local soccer club, FC Groningen. The

stadium will be multifunctional, incorporating a wide range of facilities for the city, while the

exterior of the stadium is designed so as to create a tourist attraction out of the complex.

Wiel Arets conceived the idea of building the stadium with other programs grouped within

and around it, thereby creating stadium that allows other program components to use parts of the

stadium. The structure includes a housing complex, a hotel, a large cinema, entertainment

facilities, shops, and cafes. Surrounding the stadium is a park featuring water elements and

green public space. The roof of the stadium is itself a park, containing grass and trees.

The most complex portion of this stadium is the concept of a ‘lift-pitch’ whereby the field

itself is lifted up from its resting place to allow light to reach it more easily, instead of having the

field slide out of the stadium horizontally. This feature allows the field to be used as an extra level

accessible from the roof park, and allows an opportunity for other functions underneath.

( All informat ion obtained from The Stadium: The Architecture of Mass Sport, edited by Michelle Provoost,

Rotterdam: NAI Publishers, 2000. pp. 132, 175-77 )

Exterior of the Euroborg Stadium (top); section throughthe stadium showing roof garden (bottom)

Images courtesy of Wiel Arets in The Stadium: The Architecture of Mass Sport, edited by Michelle

Provoost, Rotterdam: NAI Publishers, 2000. p.175-77





BIBLIOGRAPHY / 116

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thesis

Abel, Chris. Architecture and Identity: Responses to Cultural and Technological Change.

Second Edition. Oxford; Boston: Architectural Press, 2000.

Bale, John. Sport, Space and the City . London: Routledge, 1993.

Barboza, David. “Soldier Field Renovation Brings Out Boo-Birds,” New York Times , 16 June

2003.

Danielson, Michael N. Home Team: Professional Sports and the American Metropolis.

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.

Euchner, Charles C. Playing the Field . Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University

Press, 1993.

Goldberger, Paul, “At Home in the City, Baseball’s Newest Parks Succeed,” The New York

Times, April 17, 1994.

Hawkes, Nigel. Structures: The Way Things are Built. New York: Macmillan, 1993. 94.

John, Geriant, and Kit Campbell, ed. Handbook of Sports and Recreational Building Design.

Volume 1 Outdoor Sports, Second Edition. London: The Sports Council, 1993.

J h G i t d R d Sh d St di A D i d D l t G id Thi d Editi



BIBLIOGRAPHY / 117

John, Geriant, and Rod Sheard. Stadia: A Design and Development Guide. Third Edition.

London: Architectural Press, 2000.

Noll, Roger G. and Andrew Zimbalist, ed. Sports, Jobs, and Taxes: The Economic Impact of

Sports Teams and Stadiums. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1997.

Provoost, Michelle, ed. The Stadium: The Architecture of Mass Sport. Rotterdam: NAI

Publishers Rotterdam, 2000.

Riess, Steven A. City Games: the Evolution of American Urban Society and the Rise of Sports.

Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991.

Roth, Leland M. Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning. Boulder, CO:

Westview Press, 1992.

Sands, Robert R., ed. Anthropology, Sport, and Culture, Westport, Conn.: Bergin & Garvey, 1999.

Shannon, Mike. Riverfront Stadium: Home of the Big Red Machine. Chicago: Arcadia

Publishing, 2003.

Post, Nadine M. “Focus on Sports Villages: San Diego’s Ballpark Neighborhood is a Grand Slam

Against Slums.” Engineering News-Record . 8 March 2004.

<http://enr.construction.com/features/buildings/archives/040208a.asp>

http://www.bball.net/documents/doc/Press%20Release.doc

http://www metropolismag com/html/urbanjournal 1203/brooklynstadium html



BIBLIOGRAPHY / 118

http://www.metropolismag.com/html/urbanjournal_1203/brooklynstadium.html

http://www.romeguide.it/MONUM/ARCHEOL/ccircus_maximus/circus.htm



APPENDIX / 119

APPENDIX

THESIS DIAGRAMS



THESIS DIAGRAMS

SITE DIAGRAM



SITE DIAGRAM

SITE PHOTOS



SITE PHOTOS

Image of western half of the MTA Hudson Railyards.

Photo provided by the CCA Competition’s website,available at http://www.cca.qc.ca/prize/e/default.htm

Image of eastern half of the MTA Hudson Railyards.

Photo provided by the CCA Competition’s website,

available at http://w ww.cca.qc.ca/prize/e/default.htm

View of MTA Hudson Railyards from atop the Highline Photo provided by Jake Dobkin’s website, available at http://www.bluejake.com/images/2002_highline/

MTA truck yard bordered by W. 33 rd & W. 34th Streets. Photo provided by the CCA Competition’s website,

available at http://www.cca.qc.ca/prize/e/default.htm



Eastern half of the Hudson Railyards from W. 30 St.. Photo provided by the CCA Competition’s website,available at http://www.cca.qc.ca/prize/e/default.htm

Eastern half of the Hudson Railyards from 11th Ave.

Photo provided by the CCA Competition’s website,available at http://www.cca.qc.ca/prize/e/default.htm

Eastern-most portion of the MTA Hudson Railyardsnear the Farley Building from W. 31st Street.

Photo taken by author (11/14/03)

View of the historic elevated Highline as seen alongW. 30th Street.




MTA truck yard bordered by W. 33 rd & W. 34th Streetslooking west toward the Hudson.


Looking north in the Hudson River Park along theWest Side Highway.


View up W. 34th Street at the West Side Highway.


MTA truck yard bordered by W. 33 rd & W. 34th Streetslooking south.




Looking southeast along the Hudson River Park.


View from the West Side Highway to the Highline andthe corner of the site at W. 30 th Street.


Eastern-most portion of the MTA Hudson Railyardsnear the Farley Building from W. 31st Street.


The beginning of the bend in the Highline along W.30th Street.




View of the Highline along W. 30th Street with theEmpire State Building in the distance.


The Javits Convention Center on the corner of W. 34th

and 11th Ave.


Interior view of the Javits lobby and concourse.


Image of the space frame structure of the Javits lobband concourses.




Documents

Baker Brian j