BALLPARCHITECTURE

A Study of Configuration Versus Performance in Ballpark Design

eric j einhorn

university of michigan

december 1999

CONFIGURATION VERSUS PERFORMANCE

What influence have parks had on the game?  Is there a correlation between ballpark configuration and player performance?  How have these parks and stadiums influenced the game itself?

Dimensional changes have occurred somewhat frequently over the years in distances and heights of field boundaries.  Such changes are crucial to an understanding of the statistical history of baseball and its correlation to configuration since they provide evidence of that relationship.  Relative advantages or disadvantages are presented to hitters and pitchers in the various ballparks, which have had vastly different geometries and dimensions.  These variations have had an influence over the relative merits of various players’ individual accomplishments.

For example, Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis had an 11.5-foot high concrete wall in right field in 1927.  On July 5, 1929, a 21.5 foot screen was added on top of the wall, making the fence 33 feet high altogether.  In 1932, Jimmy Foxx of the A’s hit 58 home runs, in 1927 Babe Ruth of the Yankees hit 60.  Research on home runs indicates that of Foxx’s 9 singles and 1 double in St. Louis in 1932, only his June 15th double hit the new screen and would have been a homer in 1927, making his home run total 59.  Also of Ruth’s 4 homers in St. Louis in 1927, only his May 10th one would have been prevented form leaving the park by the screen in 1932, making his home run count 59 as well. If history were different Jimmy Foxx may have shared the record for 59 home runs in a season with Babe Ruth until Roger Maris broke the record in 1961 with 61 home runs.

It has been documented that Yankee Stadium was design to maximize the production of Babe Ruth (294 feet to right field).  Babe Ruth was the largest draw for the Yankees and the player around which the team was built.  The configurations were thought to best suit his abilities as a hitter and thus please the fans who were contributing to sales at the gate.

Two of the finest ballparks ever built were influenced by both desired performance of their franchise player and pressures placed upon it by their urban constraints.  Both Fenway Park and Camden Yards are acknowledged as being two of the best examples of ballpark deformation by pressures of its site, but still recognized the necessity for biased space.

HISTORY OF THE BUILDING TYPE

Philip J. Lowry cites in Green Cathedrals that there have been three clearly defined stadiums eras that have followed the establishment of baseball as one of our popular spectator sports.  The eras are the classic ballpark, the super stadium, and regenerated classic ballpark.  Desire by the owners to generate greater revenues was the cause for all three eras of ballparks.

CLASSIC BALLPARKS

The first era occurred between 1909 and 1923.  Fourteen parks were erected during this period:  Shibe Park in Philadelphia (1909), Sportsmans Park in St. Louis (1909), Forbes Field in Pittsburgh (1909), League Park in Cleveland (1910), Comiskey Park in Chicago (1910), Griffith Stadium in Washington (1911), The Polo Grounds in New York (1911), Crosley Field in Cincinnati (1912), Fenway Park in Boston (1912), Tiger Stadium in Detroit (1912), Ebbets Field in Brooklyn (1913), Wrigley Field in Chicago (1914), Braves Field in Boston (1915), and Yankee Stadium in New York (1923).  All of these parks were urban and therefore had to obey the rules that al worthy urban buildings followed.  They had to observe the traditional patterns of streets, blocks, and neighborhoods.  This observance made these ballparks aesthetically pleasing through their quirkiness and appreciated for their diversity.  These parks were privately funded and built by owners who saw the financial advantages of achieving attendances larger than they could in their small wooden bleachered fields.

SUPER STADIUMS

Responding to the Modernist Movement in architecture, postwar stadiums were usually straightforward utilitarian examples of engineering, embodying simple, functional design.  This style of architecture was introduced to this country when architects such as Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe began their practices in the United States.  These Modernists produced abstracts about symmetry and visual presentations of buildings as freestanding entities.  Since form followed function, and function was symmetry, playing field configuration became symmetrical as these stadium found themselves isolated within a tundra of parking lots.  They were simply machines to move people in and out as quickly as possible.  Hence, this form of modernism tuned into science and technology, but without taking into consideration the impacts ballpark configurations had on the game.

The second era occurred between 1962 and 1977.  Another fourteen stadiums were constructed during this period:  Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles (1962), Shea Stadium in New York (1964), The Astrodome in Houston (1965), Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta (1966), Busch Stadium in St. Louis (1966), Anaheim Stadium in Anaheim (1966), Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland (1968), Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego (1969), Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati (1970), Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh (1970), Veteran’s Stadium in Philadelphia (1971), Royals Stadium in Kansas City (1973), The Kingdome in Seattle (1977), and Olympic Stadium in Montreal (1977).  I would like to add three more recent examples to this list.  They are the Suncoast Dome in St. Pettersburg (1988), the Skydome in Toronto (1989), and New Comiskey Park in Chicago (1991).

REGENERATED CLASSICS

Today we find ourselves in the middle of the third era.  This period is said to have begun with the construction of Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland, 1992.  Located on the site of an old railroad yard, the park signified and end to the era of the sterile, round, “cookie-cutter” stadiums.  Camden Yards embodies the allure of the parks of the first era, plus it spared the one element with the first era that made them classics: it was shaped by the city.  By incorporating a turn of the century warehouse into the design, Camden Yards became one of the newest and one of the oldest parks in the game today.  Its success lay less in its arched brick exterior than in its asymmetrically angled field shape and seating arrangements.  Its reintroduction of an expressed steel structure after decades of heavy concrete was refreshing.  Camden Yards has become the defining example of the third era.

I believe we are presently straddling two eras of ballparks.  We are simultaneously experiencing a continuation of the first era while beginning a third which combines the firs and the second.  The Ballpark in Arlington (1994), Turner Field in Atlanta (1997), Safeco Field in Seattle (1999), and Edison Field in Anaheim (1997) are part of a new era of parks that are simply clad to resemble the fields of yesteryear;  they still contain too many of the flaws associated with the stadiums of the sixties.  However, Camden Yards (1992), Jacobs Field in Cleveland (1994), Coors Field in Denver (1995), and Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix (1998) should be included in the first generation of classic parks.

the playing field

The form of the baseball field adds an additional layer of complexity to this exceedingly intricate game.  The effect that form has on the way the game is actually played differentiates it form nearly all other sports.

The code of the rules were written to govern the playing of baseball games by professional teams of the American League of Professional Baseball Clubs and the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs.  Within these official rules of baseball there are sections containing absolutes and suggestions for the design of major league parks.

1.04 THE PLAYING FIELD.  The field shall be laid out according to the instructions below, supplemented by Diagrams No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 on adjoining pages.

The infield shall be a 90-foot square.  The outfield shall be the area between two foul lines formed by extending two sides of the square, as in Diagram 1.  The distance from home base to the nearest fence, stand or other obstruction on fair territory shall be 250 feet or more.  A distance of 320 feet or more along the foul lines, and 400 feet or more to center field is preferable.  The infield shall be graded so that the base lines and home plate are level.  The pitcher’s plate shall be 10 inches above the level of home plate.  The degree of slope from a point 6 inches in front of the pitcher’s plate to a point 6 feet toward home plate shall be 1 inch to 1 foot, and such degree of slope shall be uniform.  The infield and outfield, including the boundary lines, are fair territory and all other area is foul territory.

It is desirable that the line from home base through the pitcher’s plate to second base shall run East-Northeast.

It is recommended that the distance from home base to the backstop, and from the base lines to the nearest fence, stand or other obstruction on foul territory shall be 60 feet or more.  See Diagram 1.

When location of home base is determined, with a steel tape measure 127 feet, 3-3/8 inches in desired direction to establish second base.  From home base, measure 90 feet toward first base; from second base, measure 90 feet toward first base; the intersection of these lines establishes first base.  From home base, measure 90 feet toward third base;  from second base, measure 90 feet toward third base; the intersection of these lines establishes third base.  The distance between first base and third base is 127 feet, 3-3/8 inches.  All measurements from home base shall be taken from the point where the first and third base lines intersect.

The catcher’s box, the batters’ boxes, the coaches’ boxes, the three-foot first base lines and the next batters’ boxes shall be laid out as shown in Diagrams 1 and 2.

The grass lines and dimensions shown on the diagrams are those used in many fields, but they are not mandatory and each club shall determine the size and shape of the grassed and bare areas of its playing field.

NOTE  (a) Any Playing Field constructed by a professional club after June 1, 1958, shall provide a minimum distance of 325 feet from home base to the nearest fence, stand or other obstruction on the right and left field foul lines, and a minimum distance of 400 feet to the center field fence.  (b) No existing playing field shall be remodeled after June 1, 1958, in such manner as to reduce the distance from home base to the foul poles and to the center field fence below the minimum specified in paragraph (a) above.

Three factors exert pressure on the orientation of a ball field; the sun, the immediate site, and the possible views.  Most urban parks align themselves to a city’s structure with respect to these factors.  As stated above, the desired orientation from home plate towards center field is East-Northeast.  This suggestion reduces the influence or distraction that the sun and shadow patterns will have over the game.

Some stadiums, especially during the Classic Ballpark era, have been oriented with the city grid.  Since most city grids aligned themselves with the cardinal directions,  suggested orientations were not hard to achieve.

Potential views are a third factor of ballpark orientation.  This factor only truly exists within stadiums which open themselves up to their immediate surroundings.  Since the Super Stadiums tended to be completely enclosed on all sides, there were no opportunities for visual urban relationships aside from those with the sky.

UNIQUE PLACES

Uniqueness in ballpark designs is part of what made baseball sacred.  Each field bore unique experiences which could only occur in those parks, and helped define their sense of place.  Willie May’s famous catch and Bobby Thompson’s “shot heard ‘round the world” could only have occurred within the Polo Grounds’ unique configurations.  Fenway Park created one of baseball’s enduring moments in the twelfth inning of the 1975 World Series with Carlton Fisk’s “body english” homerun.  The long line of prominent Yankee left handed batters is a reflection of the timeless qualities possessed by Yankee Stadium.

A return to diversity in ballpark design would be an effective tonic for the health of the game.  More diverse ballparks would create unique advantages and disadvantages for all types of ballplayers.  Fewer parks would be aptly suited to maximize a player’s ability.  It would be in the players’ interest to locate and play in parks that would increase their statistics and thus their market value.  If a player is better suited to a park, logic states that player will migrate to that park.

As parks become more unique overall player movement on the major league level will decrease.  There will be an initial stage of high player movement as the players search out the park that best suits them.  This period of high player movement will drop off drastically over time as players find “their” parks.  This will be the result of the player maximizing his performance and therefore maximizing his value.  It would be detrimental for a player to leave their new environment since his statistics would decrease in a different park thus decreasing his value.  If the player chose to return to their old team, they would have to do so with a discount their value in terms of real dollars.  Teams will have to rely upon developing talent via their farm systems.

Ballpark diversity may also manifest itself through the combination of follies resulting form the surrounding contexts in which the new parks are situated and through design intents for the type of play desired within the stadium.  Additionally, these new urban follies must be defended. The practice of players mastering the defense of such follies can only be gained through experience, which can only be gained though time.  It is in the interest of the ball clubs to have such experience present on their rosters; this experience will allow the team a greater home field advantage when playing at their home park.  It will also be advantageous for the clubs to keep players longer so that they can gain the experience to master their surroundings.

Therefore, diversity in ballparks will reduce player movement through free agency and thus will increase appreciation by fans.  The fans will be treated to a greater exhibition at home which will allow them to establish relationships with the players.  Economics for both the player and club allow the players to remain in one city for a longer period of time.

The institution of free agency arose during the modernist period of ballpark design.  Free agency has denied the relationships that fans could have with the players of their teams that were prevalent in the earlier half of the century.  These modern “cookie cutter” parks placed the idea of free agency to fill rosters over player development.  Since all of these parks had almost identical dimensions and materials, players’ performances could easily be estimated from one park to the next.  Players could rent their services out to the highest bidding team and not see a change in their value on the open market since their statistics would remain almost identical under almost identical circumstances.

Most of the new parks being constructed today, besides being different from their cousins of the last era, are very similar to each other.  As stadia remain similar, players’ statistics become similar from park to park.  It can be assumed that performance will change minimally from park to park.  Thus players go to the highest bidding team.

Baseball’s obsession with adding character, charm and coziness to the game has also witnessed an increase in home runs as outfield walls move inward and foul territory diminishes.  Almost all of the new ballparks, including those presently under construction, are hitters’ dreams come true, and conversely, nightmares for pitchers.

BIASED SPACE

Biased – 1. To give bias to: incline to one side: give particular direction to: INFLUENCE, PREJUDICE, PREPOSSESS  2. To apply a slight negative or positive voltage to

Biased spaces are all around us.  Most design, concepts have the standardized individual in mind.  But how many of us fit the definition of this standardized individual?  Are all spaces which are designed with a sensitivity towards the standardized individual comfortable for everyone?  these are spaces that provide clear advantages to certain people over others; legal and ethical pressures restrict the degree toward which an architect can slant a design.

Ballparks are one of the few building types in which there are, or can be, conscious design efforts implemented to handicap or give advantage to specific segments of the population.  Ballparks are biased spaces.  They discriminate against and exaggerate the differences between the right-handed and the left-handed, the laggard and the swift, the burly and the svelte.  Historically, they have favored one sector over the other, allowing for more arduous play for some and making the space more accommodating for others.  These biases have layered baseball with an additional dimension of variables.

The making of marks upon the land has great impact over forming these biases.  These marks are important in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions.  Park configuration is the second biggest factor on the game aside from the ability of the people playing it.  Being pressured by site and roster, wall heights and distances are key factors in the design of ballpark configurations.

These marks are not just perceived and experience through observation.  They are experience through direct interaction between the participant and the mark.

A consequence of modernism was uniformity in stadium design.  Over the years, there has been a trend towards uniformity in ballparks.  This uniformity has removed the biases that once ran rampant throughout baseball. Biases have tendencies to disappear once a form becomes the norm.

In what other building type is one openly allowed to discriminate against one segment of society and give advantage to another segment?

Yankee Stadium in New York, for instance, was biased to increase Babe Ruth’s production.  Babe Ruth being the draw of the Yankees, it was in their economic interest to make sure that he played successfully.  Many left-handed players with traits comparable with those of Ruth have flourished with the stadium’s cozy right field dimensions, including Gehrig, Berra, Mantle (a switch-hitter who batted left-handed most of the time), Marris, and Jackson.

What are the critical dimensions for biased space?  The modernist period has defined what one can consider unbiased space through symmetry and uniformity.  When fences are 10 feet tall, foul lines distance 330 feet, power alleys distance 375 feet, and center field at a distance of 400 feet, equality can maintained between pitchers and batter, right handers and left handers.  It is the variance from this norm which causes differing tendencies.  As the amount of foul territory increases, the likelihood of foul balls being caught for outs increases, and the advantage for pitchers increases.  Increasing the outfield fence distances creates an advantage for the pitchers within certain limits.  The relationships between the outfield fence dimensions and the performance of the pitcher takes on bell curve form.  There is a distance that will maximize performance:  any variance from that position will wither cause the playing field to be so large that routine singles and doubles are allowed to go for triples and inside the park home runs, or so small that routine fly balls find themselves in the outfield bleachers.

URBAN IMPLICATIONS

Each of the classic urban parks was unique.  In his essay “A’s Coliseum:  an Architectural Marvel,” Allan Temko compares Fenway Park of the previously defined first era and Oakland Coliseum of the second era.  His comparisons do not simply describe these parks, but help define the eras in which they were constructed and how site implications play a role in their design.

Temko asserts that within Fenway Park, the fans are so close to the field that they hear the player’s voices and notice whether or not they have shaved.  Its configuration was a reaction to the dense urban cityscape in which it was sited.  The standardized field layout of the Oakland Coliseum can never replace wild improvisations forced by an urban grid such as Fenway’s Green Monster fence in left field.  Fabrications like this made home runs easier to hit in one direction than another.  Foul balls were also hard to catch, because baselines ran so close to the stands.

CASE STUDIES

Over time many ballparks have been designed or renovated with a particular player or style of play in mind.  Teams have tried to influence on-field performance by dictating configurations.

THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT

In 1923 the New York Yankees moved from the Polo Grounds in Harlem to Yankee Stadium in New York.  Its nickname, “The House That Ruth Built,” is only a slight exaggeration.  The property which Yankee Stadium sits upon is bounded by streets on all sides, but the site is sufficiently large enough to permit the playing field to be relatively independent of the formal pressures exerted by the park’s immediate context.  This expansiveness resulted in Yankee Stadium’s cavernous left field.  The fences measured 457 feet to left center and 461 to center.  In response to vast amount of territory in left field and its distance from the home plate, the Yankees would eventually erect monuments to Yankee Greats on the field of play with the assurance that they would almost never interfere with the game being played.

Babe Ruth exerted the strongest pressure upon the shape of the playing field.  To take full advantage of Ruth’s abilities, the right field fence was constructed a mere 296 feet down the line, 344 to straightaway right field, and 367 to the power alley in right center field.

WILLIAMSBURGH

Fenway Park was retrofitted for Ted Williams’s talents in 1940.  In an attempt to increase his home run production, the front office installed a bullpen in front of the right field bleachers after his rookie season of 1939.  This move brought the fences in 23 feet. The bullpen was dubbed “Williamsburgh” in anticipation of how many home runs the Splendid Splinter would hit there.  Ted Williams went on to hit 521 home runs for his career, eleventh best of all time.

GREENBERG GARDENS

In 1948 the Pittsburgh Pirates acquired Hank Greenberg from the Detroit Tigers.  In an attempt to increase Greenberg’s production, the Pirates reduced the distance from home plate to left field wall by 30 feet from the original 365-foot mark.  This section of Forbes Field was nicknamed “Greenberg Gardens.”  Nine years earlier Greenberg challenged Ruth’s single-season homerun mark with 58.

Hank’s teammate, Ralph Kiner, benefited the most from the change.  After the change in configuration, Kiner’s power number production increased dramatically.  During his six seasons with the Pirates, his home run production increased from 23 to 45 per season and his runs batted in increased from 81 to 115 per season.  When Kiner was traded to the Chicago Cubs in 1953, the fence was removed.

CHAVEZ RAVINE

The Dodgers have been one of the more successful franchises during the second half of this century.  They moved to Los Angeles in 1957.  During the 1960’s the Los Angeles Dodgers won three pennants with teams built around speed, pitching, and defense, in a park that was considered an expansive pitchers’ park.  However, the franchise began to develop a great deal of young power hitters.  In early 1969 the Dodgers moved their fences in by 10 feet, and with a team built around power hitting, went on to win four pennants over the next eleven years.  They might not have won had the fences been in their original location.

EXAMPLES FROM TODAY

CAMDEN YARDS

This practice of designing a stadium to fit a team or a player’s strengths can be seen today.  There have been article written that Camden Yards was designed for Cal Ripken (364 feet to left center).  Camden Yards has been a hitter’s park from its initiation, whereas its predecessor was a pitcher’s park.  (In its brief life, Memorial Stadium nurtured a remarkable six Cy Young Awards.)

THE TED

Turner Field in Atlanta (1997) was dimensioned for the Braves vaunted starting pitching.  The fences are deep, but not too cavernous to allow many triples or inside the park homeruns.  The outfield fences are tall enough to cut down on homeruns but short enough to still allow ground rule doubles.  The plan of the outfield wall is a smooth curve designed for the prevention of unusual caroms.

DESIGN PROPOSAL

THE HOUSE THAT VLADIMIR BUILT

My intention for my thesis is to design a ballpark that will conjure up the typical baseball argument over ballplayers and their relationships to the stadia in which they played or would have thrived in if given the opportunity to do so.  I propose locating this ballpark in downtown Washington, DC.  The stadium would be constructed for the move and sale of the Montreal Expos Baseball Club.

The problem is to design a ballpark for the relocation of the Montreal Expos to Washington, DC.  Baseball is peculiar among American team sports because the form of its playing field is both precisely defined and indeterminate.  In baseball only the infield is an absolute.  Everything else can be manipulated including foul ground and the outfield.  There are forces present to manipulate the execution of a ballpark’s configuration.  This park must maximize the present talent and draws existing on the current major league roster of the Expos while simultaneously responding to the city to which the club is moving; it must also acknowledge the legacy of the existing franchise, and generate enough revenue to legitimize the move.  The park must also respect the overall history of the game and themes that create high-quality ballparks.

Montreal’s current daily lineup includes one probable future superstar in catcher-third baseman Michael Barrett, a multi-tooled star in outfielder Rondell White, and one of baseball’s best young hitters in outfielder Vladimir Guerrero.  Their past rosters have included all-stars such as catcher Gary Carter and outfielder Andre Dawson.

Vladimir has experienced an incredible first two full seasons at the big league level, leading the new generation of baseball superstars.  Over the past two seasons he has ranked near the top in the league in all major offensive categories.  He has placed his mark on Expos history as well.  He already owns records for the team’s single-season home run, runs batted in, extra-base hits, total bases, and slugging percentage.

At 23 years old, Vladimir is also very young.  He is still five or so years from approaching his athletic prime.  He is young enough that the stadium and he will be able to spend many a productive summer together.  Ted Williams was 22 years of age when Fenway was altered to suit his abilities, though not even as established as Guerrero is now at age 23.  Babe Ruth was 28 when Yankee Stadium was designed with his capabilities mind.  He had only played three seasons as a full time fielder at that point in his career.  The preceding six were spent as a pitcher on the Boston Red Sox.  Cal Ripken was 32 and already towards the end of his prime when Camden Yards opened.  Due to the combination of age and the wear and tear of playing everyday, there was not an increase in Ripken’s statistical output after the move.  Precedents state that Vladimir is at the perfect age to have a stadium tailored to his strength; his performance thus far, when compared to other players who have had stadiums biased towards their strengths, justifies biasing a ballpark to his capacities.

While in Montreal, the Expos have called two stadiums home:  Parc Jarry (Jarry Park) and Stade Olympique (Olympic Stadium).  The Expos occupied Jarry Park from 1969 until 1976.  Before the Expos began playing there, it was a 3,000 seat recreational ballpark.  Its capacity was increased to 28,456 for the team.  Also, homers to right field sometimes landed in a swimming pool, a condition similar to the on that currently exists inside Bank One Ballpark.  The field’s dimensions were 340 feet to left and right field, 368 to left and right center, 420 feet to center, and 62 feet to the backstop.  The Expos have occupied Olympic Stadium from 1977 to the present.  The world’s tallest inclined structure ever built is located in center field.  The 556-foot high tower is 1 foot taller than the Washington Monument and is angled 45 degrees vs. the 5 degrees of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  The tower holds an umbrella roof, which is hoisted up on 26 cables to retract the roof of lowered on the cables to put on the roof in case of inclement weather.  Two players, Dave Kingman and Darryl Strawberry, have hit the technical ring which surrounds the stadium on the inside on the roof.

Washington, DC had a professional baseball club of some sort from 1871 up until 1971.  The two most recent teams moved to Minnesota and Texas.  I ask this question, “How can a country have a national pastime without a team in their nation’s capital?”  It used to be tradition for the president of the United States to open each season by throwing out the first pitch.

During that century of baseball within the District games were held in 10 different parks.  The two most recent were Griffith Stadium and Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.  Griffith Stadium opened in 1911, part of the first era of parks.  The center field wall detoured around five houses and a huge tree.  In right field, the foul line was marked by the grandstand wall for the last 15 feet in front of the foul pole, so there was no way to catch a foul ball there.  Wrigley Field has a similar condition existing today.  The field’s dimensions were 470 feet to left field, 391 feet to left center, 421 feet to center field, 387 feet to right center, 328 feet to right field, and 61 feet to the backstop.

The Washington Senators moved into Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in 1971.  The stadium was on axis with the Mall, which is part of L’Enfant’s master plan for the city.  That axis connects the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, and the Capitol; the cross axis through the Monument contains The White House and the Jefferson Memorial.  RFK became another monument within the axis.

Numerous baseball teams have called the District of Columbia home over the years.  Some of their names include Olympics, Washingtons, Nationals, Unions, Statesmen, Potomacs, Pilots, Elite Giants, Homestead Grays, Black Senators, and the Senators.  These teams have included many legendary ballplayers.  Among them are Josh Gibson, Walter Johnson, Harmon Killebrew, and Frank Howard.

The issue of site will be a most important one.  As stated numerous times before, the classic ballparks of the 1920’s and 30’s got their asymmetry from the conditions existing on the site, which they were to be built.  Currently there are three sites under consideration for placing a new facility in the Washington area.  One of them is Potomac Yards in Alexandria, Virginia.  Another is in Mount Vernon Square in downtown DC, on of L’Efant’s fifteen nodes of the master plan.  And the third is the current RFK site.  Each site offers a unique set of conditions for the ballpark to react to.  After analyzing these sites as well as the relevant baseball histories outlined above, I have determined that Mount Vernon Square will allow for the best possible scenario that my thesis investigates.

The strategy my design employs to support my argument of configuration versus performance will be a series of diagrams of configurations for past players of the Senators and Expos.  There will be a series of diagrams of configurations for past players of the Senators and Expos.  There will be a study of the aforementioned ballparks in the District of Columbia and Montreal and the implications of their configurations and locations.  In this way the ballpark will speak not just of the present state of baseball within the District, but also of its rich history.  The result will be a ballpark, unique and biased, derived from Mount Vernon Square as the urban context and Vladimir Guerrero as the biasing subject.

index

REFERENCES

Diana I. Agrest, “Architecture from Without:  Body, Logic, and Sex,” 1998

Moe Berg, “Pitchers and Catchers,” The Atlantic Monthly

Philip Bess, City Baseball Magic:  Plain Talk and Uncommon Sense About Cities and Baseball Parks, 1989

Philip H. Bess, “From Elysian Fields to Domed Stadiums:  Form, Context, and Character in American Baseball Parks,”

Threshold 2, 1983

Alan Colquhoun, “Three Kinds of Historicism,” 1983

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

American Metropolis, 1997

David Dillon, “Texas Leaguer:  The Ballpark in Arlington attempts to civilize suburbia,” Landscape Architecture

Carol Belanger Grafton, Six Old-Time Baseball Parks, 1993

Michael Gershman, Diamonds:  The Evolution of the Ballpark, 1993

Adam Gopnik, “Reflections: Quattrocento Baseball,” The New Yorker, May, 1980

Karstren Harries, The Ethical Function of Architecture, 1997

Geraint John and Rod Sheard, Stadia:  A Design and Development Guide, 1997

Richard Justice, “Problems Exposed:  Montreal is Very Close to Losing its Baseball Team,” The Washington Post, June 6, 1999

Tim Kurkjian, ESPN The Magazine, To Infinity and Beyond, October 4, 1999

M. A. Laugier, Observations on Architecture, 1765

Michael Leccese, “Taking it Downtown:  Coors Field strives to complement the urban landscape," Landscape Architecture

Steven Litt, “Two-Base Hit:  Jacobs Field is a winning addition to Cleveland’s urban landscape,” Landscape Architecture

Philip J. Lowry, Green Cathedrals:  The Ultimate Celebration of All 271 Major League and Negro League Ballparks Past and Present, 1992

David Nemec, The Official Rules of Baseball:  An Anecdotal Look at the Rules of Baseball and How They Came To Be, 1994

Kate Nesbitt, Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture:  An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995, 1996

Christian Norber-Schultz, The Phenomenon of Place, 1976

Juhani Pallasmaa, The Geometry of Feeling:  A Look at the Phenomenology of Architecture, 1986

John Pastier, “Play Ball:  The newest ballparks don’t fit their cities like a glove, “ Landscape Architecture

John Pastier, “The Business of Baseball:  Creative Proposals Can’t Save Comiskey Park,” Inland Architect, January, 1989

John Pastier, “The Sporting Life,” Architectural Record, September, 1999

Benjamin G. Rader, American Sports:  From the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Televised Sports, 1999

Peter Richmond, Ballpark:  Camden Yards and the Building of an American Dream, 1993

Kit R. Roane, “In Brooklyn, Residents Ball at a Plan to Return Baseball,” New York Times, November 1, 1999

Manfredo Tafuri, Architecture and Utopia:  Design and Capitalist Development, 1996

Allan Temko, “No Way to Build a Ballpark,” No Way to Build a Ballpark:  and Other Irreverent Essays on Architecture, 1993

USA Today, The Complete Four Sport Stadium Guide, 1996

Ballparks by Munsey and Suppes, www.ballparks.com

majorleaguebaseball.com:  The Official Site of Major League Baseball, www.majorleaguebaseball.com

Total Baseball Online, www.totalbaseball.com