By Roger Weber

 

"It should have a sense of history.  It should have seats that are close to the action.  And it should have a great baseball atmosphere."

 

-Brian Merzbach, ballparkreviews.com

 

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“A good park is "designed to be quite different from most."

 

-Houston Astros Customer Service Representative

 

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"Our goal is to design a ballpark the speaks to its community and can be recognized."

 

“Unfortunately baseball is a defined sport that has specific requirements for professional baseball. They all have a field, generally the same size, they need seating and fan amenities (toilets and concessions, press box, etc.). Most of these elements are most always organized in the same way...toilets and concessions around a concourse, and seating around the field. The Architecture is what typically tells them apart. One must look beyond the standard features noted above to see the "identity" of a ballpark.”

 

-Mike Westerheid, AIA, Principal Architect, HNTB Architects

 

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“A ballpark is great to me, when its history is only overcome by its beauty. Such is the case with Fenway Park and also in Wrigley Field. Fenway to me is overwhelming at times. It’s a step into the past. A time machine to a much simpler and different time. It’s not like the Disney ride that makes you feel like you’re somewhere else. You’re really experiencing something that existed long ago, the same it was experienced by the very people who were there in 1912.”

 

“A modern day ballpark can lead the way to a new era…an excursion into a new day that will define how we see the game for decades to come. How is that done? I assure you, it is not by poorly mimicking the past. Retro ballparks are nothing more than that Disney ride.”

 

“Instead the next great ballpark will be a leap forward…A look to the future with a design completely different than what we’ve experienced so far. That ballpark has yet to be built…HOK’s recreations of the past are tired and old despite being recently created…We need some new blood in the ballpark building business…”

 

-Eric Pastore, webmaster of Digitalballparks.com

 

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“It should have a sense of history. It should have seats that are close to the action. And it should have a great baseball atmosphere.”

 

-Brian Merzbach, webmaster of BallparkReviews.com