Click on the link to read the article from NY Newsday

Brains behind new Mets, Yanks stadiums

BY NEIL BEST
Newsday Staff Correspondent

June 9, 2006

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- By the end of the decade, baseball fans in New York should be munching on peanuts and CrackerJack in two new ballparks full of modern amenities as well as nostalgic nods to the past.

It will be a seminal moment in Big Town for the sport still closest to its collective heart.

Strangely, though, the buildings took shape a half-continent away from Times Square, in this town that sees itself – not rival St. Louis – as the easternmost edge of the American West. It happened at the offices of HOK Sport, the biggest name in a field it helped invent.

Why Kansas City? It's a long, mostly serendipitous story of a group of young architects in Kansas City who fell into the specialty because of a love of sports and struck gold in the form of a building boom that continues to this day.

HOK's corporate roots go back to the 1970s and Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City and later to Giants Stadium. But the firm in its current form opened for business in 1983 as a sports branch of a large St. Louis outfit. Quickly, the partners noted the era of the previous generation of stadiums, many of them multi-use and hideous, was coming to an end.

The firm designed Joe Robbie Stadium in south Florida, which opened in 1987, in the process inventing club seats. But its most influential innovation came with the 1988 opening of minor league Pilot Field in Buffalo, the first of the throwback, downtown, new baseball stadiums.

That, in turn, begat Baltimore's Camden Yards in 1992, which solidified HOK's status.

Later, its list of new or renovated buildings grew to include baseball stadiums in Anaheim, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Diego and San Francisco and football facilities in Baltimore, Charlotte, Cleveland, Foxboro, Houston, Jacksonville, Landover, Md., Nashville, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Tampa.

The firm also has designed numerous basketball, hockey, soccer, collegiate, minor league and spring training facilities.

For more than a year, HOK has been working on two of its most high profile jobs yet – new buildings for each of New York's baseball teams.

Why HOK? Jeff Wilpon, the Mets' senior executive vice president, said the team initially was attracted by its work on the Norfolk stadium that houses the Mets' farm team there.

"It's the vast experience they have," he said. "Other companies have sort of broken off or splintered off over the years, but HOK is the only one that's really stayed together."

Some have accused HOK of being overly traditional and risk-averse, but both the Mets and Yankees sought traditional looks with modern twists, and believe HOK has provided that.

A few years ago, HOK designed the Staten Island Yankees' home, and it designed the Devils' arena in Newark, currently under construction.

The Giants and Jets are not using the firm for their new jointly owned stadium, set to open in 2010. They are using 360Architecture, one of two other major firms in Kansas City that have done sports work.

Dennis Wellner, one of HOK's founders, said a Midwestern ethos helped shape the company as it has evolved. "There is a work ethic we see in our people and a commitment to projects that has overridden the business issues," he said.

Indeed, a day spent at HOK's downtown Kansas City headquarters – it recently moved to a glistening new building that, naturally, it designed itself – was a study in mid-American industriousness.

Designers work in pods under signs indicating various stadium projects, miniature versions of future behemoths gradually taking shape on their computer screens.

The possibilities are endless, and the market is in no danger of dwindling.

"It amazes me every day," Wellner said. "We thought when we were sitting there (after first opening) and that if we ever got to 25 employees, wouldn't that be phenomenal? It didn't take long."

They are up to about 350 now.

Steve Carver, another founder, recalled that in 1983, he participated in a study of New York-area sports facilities that identified a need for new venues.

"I look back at that and very little has been done," he said. "While the rest of the country has gone crazy in building these facilities, New York has kind of stood still."

Not anymore.

I will not lie when I say this, though. Some people do hate the way HOK manages the construction and the format. Obviously in the minority those people are in. It's not always the case for me, but I've been rubbed the wrong way with certain issues and rules that HOK has.

An example I will give, I suppose "double-deckers" are banned because obstruction of view causes distaste? I suppose that's HOK's claim. HOK hates double-deckers I'm sure of it. Personally, there are some stadiums I like but with others I feel still need work as far as creativity is concerned. Anyone care to enlighten me on the double decker issue?

It has always been HOK that acts as the mastermind behind all the construction. It has never been a joint construction with any other company often. I know that they've even made a sample for OSC. Does anybody think that another company will ever rise to oppose HOK anytime soon?

Does HOK have a monopoly on stadium construction? That doesnt say much for competition.

I beg you people of OSC, do not choose HOK to make your new ballpark! I believe people are sick and tired of seeing HOK be involved with every ballpark-related issue. I know I am. There is a company that you should contact, HNTB. That's right, if you look at HNTB's stuff, it is actually great. They've done a minor league ballpark and some arenas, but have not been called to do Big League stuff.

Maury, I know that HOK has already done a proposed picture of the potential Portland ballpark, but I must warn you, they severely lack talent. Almost all of the new ballparks look the same, thanks to them. Do us all a favor and make sure HNTB is in the mix and HNTB only, forget HOK. The one thing that HOK never does make is have centilever upper decks. Take notice of the upper decks that are miles and even lightyears away from the field.

I'm sorry for the rant, but I'm really tired of mentioning HOK, the most overrated ballpark creators in the world. Fact.

HOK does not have a monopoly but they are the 800 pound gorilla of (baseball) stadium design. According to ballparks.com, out of the stadiums built since 1990, here are the designers:

HOK:
AT&T
Busch
Citizens Bank (along with a local firm)
Coors
Great American (along with a local firm)
Minute Maid
Petco
PNC (along with a local firm)
Angel Stadium (late 90's remodel)
Comerica (along with a local firm)
Jacobs
Camden
US Cellular


Ellerbe Beckett:
Chase
Turner (joint venture)

HKS:
Miller (w/NBBJ & local firm)
Ameriquest (w/other firm)
US Cellular (2001-5 renovations)

NBBJ:
Safeco
Miller (w/HKS & local firm)

I'm sure it helps how these firms (especially HOK) will "partner" with a local firm, both for political reasons and also to help retain the flavor of the local area.

Baseball building boom bites Big Apple By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 31, 3:31 PM ET

link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070331/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbo_nyc_stadiums

NEW YORK - The home plate of the New York Mets is marked with green paint in the gravel. The infield is a construction site teeming with men in hard hats. The seats of Yankee Stadium rumble not with cheers and boos, but with cement mixers and excavators.

Forty-three years after the last major league stadium was built in New York City, both the Yankees and the Mets will play their home openers against the backdrop of two huge construction sites. Fans will be able to get a look at both their teams and their future homes, which are rising alongside the familiar ballparks.

Construction of both stadiums started last year, and they are scheduled to open in 2009, joining a building boom that has remade the face of baseball over the last decade.

"It's a long time coming," said Jeff Wilpon, chief operating officer of the Mets. "The rest of the country's now going to be looking at New York and saying, 'Wow, look what they just did.'"

The new $800 million Mets stadium will be called Citi Field, part of a 20-year sponsorship deal between the Mets and Citigroup Inc. that is reportedly worth more than $20 million annually. The new $1 billion Yankee Stadium is going up just north of the House that Ruth Built, which will be demolished once the new ballpark is built.

The Mets start the regular season on the road and play their home opener April 9 against the Philadelphia Phillies. Fans attending games at Shea during the 2007 and 2008 seasons will be able to watch the new ballpark rise in a former parking lot beyond the outfield "” and via Webcam on the Mets' official site.

"We thought the whole process is something that's exciting to people," Wilpon said.

During a visit to the Queens construction site last week, the six towers that will house Citi Field's stairs and elevators were in various stages of completion, and two 35-ton trusses awaited being positioned for the scoreboards. Home plate was marked in green paint.

Wilpon said construction was on schedule.

At the new Yankee Stadium, 10-story cranes are visible from the street, but a wooden fence painted black shields the site from close inspection.

The best view of the new stadium is from the elevated subway platform on the No. 4 line. During a stop there last week, cement mixers churned and excavators scooped dirt as the structures that will be the stands took shape under scaffolding.

The Yankees, who open their season at home Monday against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, declined to discuss the new stadium or to allow a reporter onto the site.

Parks advocates sued unsuccessfully to halt construction of the new Yankee Stadium because it required paving over large portions of two city parks and cutting down hundreds of trees.

"The community did not have the resources to launch an adequate legal defense for their issue," said Geoffrey Croft, president of New York City Parks Advocates. "It's really sad."

The Yankees promised to pay for new parks to offset the lost green space.

Liam Kavanagh, first deputy commissioner of the city Department of Parks and Recreation, said the biggest piece of new parkland won't be built until the existing Yankee Stadium is demolished in 2009. Ballfields, basketball courts, a soccer field and a running track will replace the historic ballpark that Babe Ruth christened with a home run. "It'll be a real Mecca for active recreation," he said.

A smaller park just west of the existing Yankee Stadium will open this spring, Kavanagh said.

The Mets and Yankees join a long list of teams that have built new baseball parks in the last few years.

Like other stadiums that have opened since Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore pioneered the retro look in 1992, both of New York's ballparks will feature old-time touches designed to evoke baseball's storied past.

Yankee Stadium's designers have incorporated elements of the original stadium, including the frieze that hung from the roof, that were lost in a 1970s renovation.

Citi Field will have a multi-arched exterior facade recalling Ebbets Field, the Brooklyn Dodgers' home before they left for Los Angeles after the 1957 season.

The link with the Dodgers will be made explicit with a Jackie Robinson Rotunda at the entrance. The rotunda will pay tribute to the Dodger great who broke major league baseball's color barrier in 1947, and will include a statue of him.

Wilpon said his father, Mets owner Fred Wilpon, grew up attending games at Ebbets Field and wanted to recreate the experience for younger generations. "He really felt it was a piece of him and he wants other people to have that feeling walking through the rotunda," he said.

Both new stadiums are supposed to be more intimate and at the same time more opulent than the ones they are replacing, with fewer seats but more luxury boxes.

Citi Field will have a capacity of 45,000 including standing room. It replaces the 57,333-seat Shea, which opened in 1964.

The new Yankee Stadium will have 53,000 seats, down from the current capacity of 57,478. The current Yankee Stadium was built in 1923 but was extensively remodeled in the 1970s. It is the third-oldest ballpark in the major leagues, trailing Boston's Fenway Park (1912) and Chicago's Wrigley Field (1914).

The dimensions at Yankee Stadium will not change. The playing field at Citi Field will be smaller than Shea down the lines but larger in the gaps: 335 feet to left field, 408 to center, 330 to right. Shea is 338 to left, 410 to center, 338 to right.

My company just picked up the contract to build the new Giants/Jets stadium in New Jersy. I work with a couple of people here in Vegas who are from there and transferring back just to be part of this undertaking. I think it is my company's biggest contract to date in the US (last number was just over 900 million, but climing already to over 1 billion). I wish I could go , but northern Jersey does not interest me in the least.

quote:

Originally posted by The Cactus Leaguer:
HOK does not have a monopoly but they are the 800 pound gorilla of (baseball) stadium design. According to ballparks.com, out of the stadiums built since 1990, here are the designers:

HOK:
AT&T
Busch
Citizens Bank (along with a local firm)
Coors
Great American (along with a local firm)
Minute Maid
Petco
PNC (along with a local firm)
Angel Stadium (late 90's remodel)
Comerica (along with a local firm)
Jacobs
Camden
US Cellular


Ellerbe Beckett:
Chase
Turner (joint venture)

HKS:
Miller (w/NBBJ & local firm)
Ameriquest (w/other firm)
US Cellular (2001-5 renovations)

NBBJ:
Safeco
Miller (w/HKS & local firm)

I'm sure it helps how these firms (especially HOK) will "partner" with a local firm, both for political reasons and also to help retain the flavor of the local area.

I'm sorry but you're wrong, Cactus. Look at that list again. HOK does have a monopoly on ballpark design.

It's ridiculous. To be honest, I am growing quite tired of the same old idea HOK has in store when it comes to seating formation. It's never different to hardly ever different. They have uncentilevered decks, that's what they prefer. Let me just say that I've talked to many fans over time and they have agreed with me, they hate HOK's method of ballpark design, hate it.

You, Maury, and company are kidding yourselves if you think that's what the hardcore fan wants in a new ballpark. Of course I don't know exactly either, I admit it, but HOK first introduced their style of new ballparks in the early 1990's, and well it's time for a change in the way a ballpark is made. It's been time for a change. They've been asleep big time. I suggest that you guys contact the other ballpark makers (HKS, NBBJ, Ellerbe Beckett, and my huge favorite, HNTB) and do not involve HOK at all. I believe you're making a big mistake with HOK.

I just want HOK to go away. You gotta look around at other options before putting all of your poker chips on the HOK section. I don't mean to be rude, but that is what I really think.

Well, if owners didn't push for OPACY in 99.9% of the designs we've seen as of late, you wouldn't see half the retro-cookie cutters today. The near monopoly is due to ownership selection.

Don't know how to break this to you, but if a club were to relocate, then ownership has the pull on the design. Don't believe me, ask DC.

That said, give me a 360 Architecture design any day of the week.

quote:

Originally posted by Knick_9:
I'm sorry but you're wrong, Cactus. Look at that list again. HOK does have a monopoly on ballpark design.

OK, I looked at the list again. And yes, I still think that HOK is the 800 pound gorilla, but does not have a "monopoly on ballpark design" as you say. Most of HOK's designs are cookie cutter retro, while the others on the list are not.

That being said, I agree with your sentiment. It would be great to have a ballpark designed by local architects (I visit portlandarchitecture.com frequently, and I think this city has the talent to pull it off, no question), or at least not an HOK flavor du jour.

I also think it would be great to feature local brewpubs and restaurants prominently all over the park and not have it be all Budweiser with a little microbrew section in one corner.