If you go to a stadium these days, there’s 101 things to do. Listen to bell ring on a home run in Philly, or watch the cars drive over the Roberto Clemente Bridge in Pittsburgh. Heck, we never knew Pittsburgh look that good.
And you know what? It’s all designed by one company. HOK Sport.
Here’s my tribute to HOK…A few weeks ago one of the world’s biggest sporting teams, the New York Yankees, unveiled plans for their new stadium, to be opened in 2008.
The new design would feature the old measurements as the old “House that Ruth built”, including an even shorter porch at left field and a “great hall” between the exterior wall and interior of the stadium. If the centre field’s 434 ft, then hitters should retire. If the Yankees see a reduction on attendance, the increased retail space and increased luxury box numbers will surely see another bumper year in the box office.
A lot of “oohs” and “aahs” can be heard around the design world, but why should they be so surprised? The Yankees’ architects are none other than HOK Sport, responsible for most of the MLB’s current swathe of ballpark eyecandy.
Every sports franchise needing a stadium refit are HOK fans in the same way as women needing a refit are Botox fans. And you can understand why.
Because it’s all about feature, feature, feature.
Coors Field in Denver has the clock. Camden Yards in Baltimore had the warehouse. Fans at the new Busch stadium in St Louis will see the famous arch rising over the back of centrefield, in the same way that fans at PNC Park in Pittsburgh are still drooling over the view of downtown, the yellow Roberto Clemente Bridge, and the Allegheny river. In fact, it seems as though every HOK design comes with a perquisite- “Going to the ballpark ain’t going to be boring.” And it isn’t. Can you imagine what life would be like in sports stadia today WITHOUT them? Would there be canoeists picking out home runs balls in San Francisco? Or centre fielders running marathons to catch up will shallow flies at Comerica Park in Detroit? Or people sitting on grass in $5 seats behind the outfield? Or the bell ringing in Citizens Bank Park in Philly when Bobby Abreu slugs a homer?
The architects must spend hours trying to make sure that not a fan leaves a stadium feeling robbed by anything but a result. And they don’t just “do baseball” either.
The ship that fires out shots every time the Tampa Bay Buccaneers score a touchdown? They did that. The new stand reconstructions at Clemson and Penn State? That’s them too.
But sports fans rarely complain, because when they’re not watching the game, they are doing the 101 other things available at an HOK Stadium.
In fact, the comments we’ve heard about the new stadiums that you and I visit every year are quite the opposite, ranging from “excellent” to “loving it”. Apart from Barry Bonds, have you heard any complaints about SBC Park? Apart from Sammy Sosa’s batting average, have you heard people whining about Camden Yards? If Fenway was to be torn down (which we hope won’t happen) and , then HOK would probably do a darned good job of giving the 2004 World Champions a darned good new home.
In fact, word got out that HOK were so good at their job that UK and Portugese soccer clubs hired them to make sure that the most rabid sports fans in the world- soccer fans- have a nice home to swear at the opposition. And for the first time, we can say the football fans have got it good….
There isn’t a bad seat in the house at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, which can lose the rain with its retractable roof. The Reebok Stadium in Bolton is as nice as the surrounding area isn’t, and two of country’s biggest soccer powerhouses, Arsenal and Chelsea, have seen HOK put the design pen to their own rather beautiful stadiums. Oh, and they are doing the new National Stadium in London and will be responsible for sticking a roof on the Centre Court at Wimbledon in an effort to keep the rain out. And if Tuesday’s rainstorm’s anything to go by, then that’s that.
You know what? We can’t wait.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I do not work at HOK Sport. I just love their work.
One reply on “Wanna new stadium? Call HOK”
Nice Good job man. I had no idea that one company was the mastermind behind all these new, beautiful stadiums. Well written, a lot of detail, very nice. God forbid we lose Fenway and Yankee Stadium though. What would we have left?! Honestly.