The Other Side of Facilities

[AustinHoya03]

This is pretty funny, given how GU would kill for something like this. UT-Austin has proposed an $18M renovation to Disch-Falk field, home of the NCAA baseball champs. In today's Austin American-Statesman, the proposal was panned because the architecture isn't on the cutting edge of design. Also note the writer's criticism of HOK sports, designer of Georgetown's Multi-Sport Facility.

Photos of the proposed renovation can be found here:
www.statesman.com/horns/content/sports/photos/070805_disch-falk/

Article can be found here:
www.statesman.com/life/content/auto/epaper/editions/tuesday/life_entertainment_24cd5ac31557d0901061.html

[SFHoya99]

That's a pretty unfair indictment of HOK in my mind. HOK gives the builder what they are looking for. I know of no baseball fan that wants a modern or futuristic building.

HOK did Petco Park in San Diego, using a fairly modern architect (Antone Predock -- how did I miss that in the article?). I love the place for certain very modern aspects -- the sandstone pyramids evoking Mayan ruins, for example; or the huge, wide (200 ft) walkways that have no walls -- you can see all the way outside the stadium to one side and the field on the other. It gives a very open feel and brings the bay to the ballpark (because the water is on the west side, the ballpark couldn't face the ocean). Heck, Petco even has two Lauinger-esque towers that are supposed to be modern interpretation of the bell towers on missions.

Still, when people talk about the ballpark, no one likes these aspects. They think of them as weird. They love the warehouse in left field, which I find a bit trite given Camden. They (and I) love the centerfield park and lawn seating, which reminds of the best of Spring Training. And I hear complaints about the sandstone, as people bitch that brick is so much better for a ballpark. As if there aren't enough of those -- Camden, Coors, Jacobs, SBC...

I love the originality of Petco -- it really isn't retro at all. HOK did it in conjunction with others, and it was different because the Pads wanted it different. But all the original stuff -- people don't want that with their baseball. I'm all for new and interesting architecture, but at a sporting venue? Especially a college one?

[AustinHoya03]

Yeah, funny how in the article the writer manages to bash HOK and laud PetCo Park, while failing to mention that the former was responsible for constructing the latter.

[DFW HOYA]

austinhoya03 said:

Also note the writer's criticism of HOK sports, designer of Georgetown's Multi-Sport Facility.

I don't think HOK is the designer of the as-yet unnamed facility--it's gone through at least four different designs over the years (as thebin will recall).

It is not on the list of HOK projects:

www.hoksve.com/sport/projects/proj_list_alpha_2.htm