Driller's Stadium Construction Progress

[TheArtist]

Original


Tricked up version. Lifted the center parts up a bit, added a central inset with a spotlight shooting up (or you could add something that sticks out and "contains" the beam, ala the new PAC lighting)  and some lights shooting up on the Zink.


Decofied tricked up version.   Same as last, except with a step down on the Zink, and a flagpole.

[cannon_fodder]

Frank Deford had a good piece on ballpark architecture today:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102837901

Morning Edition, April 8, 2009 ·  In a front-page article in The New York Times, architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff expressed "disappointment" on behalf of "students of architecture," because the Mets' and Yankees' new baseball parks don't embrace the modern but, instead, celebrate a "nostalgic vision."

Speaking for students of baseball, I'm sorry, but in constructing some things, the trick is not to run away from nostalgia but simply to monkey around with it and try to gussy it up a bit. Architecturally, baseball parks are like mousetraps. No one has found a way to build a better one . . . .

. . .

People simply feel more affection for ball yards than they do for other sports' stadiums and arenas. Madison Square Garden, for all its fame, is merely an address, not a home. And a place like Gillette Stadium may be a cathedral to New England Patriots fans, just as Old Trafford is to Manchester United fans, but linear football stadiums — of both varieties — and the cereal boxes that accommodate basketball and ice hockey are pretty much just so many efficient people containers. Ball yards are quirky and idiosyncratic living things, because the architecture is part and parcel of the outfield itself — all the better that that's in utter counterpoint to the infield, that diamond of inviolate geometry.

In a subversive way, ballparks even sort of divert attention from the game itself. Football and basketball and soccer and hockey fans probably pay more attention to the action, but baseball fans are more engaged by the whole experience. It's rather like how some people go to restaurants primarily for the food, others just as much for the ambience. If football fans act more like baseball fans, it's when they're outside the stadium, tailgating. Baseball parks are sort of made for interior tailgating.

I think he nailed it.  And I think the park that is being designed for Tulsa is along this same vein.  A variation on a theme, but monkeyed enough to make it part of Tulsa.  Current Drillers Stadium gets the job done, but it is a warehouse for the sport and little more.

[Renaissance]

Nice!  I typically can't stand Deford but he hit the nail on the head here.  Nostalgia is a requisite element of ballpark design.

[patric]

What you might want to do is find the vendors/makers for the particular lights, specs, costs etc. So they don't have to go digging themselves. May make it more likely that they will be able to consider them. People often pull the books/vendor catalog off the shelves and use what they know or are familiar with. Give them a helping hand to find a new one. Who knows the vendors the use now may have these particular types of lights.

Ive found that hoping for the best is the road to disappointment, and that "no one said anything" is often the reason given for things not developing the way they should.

When I talk lights with developers, I prefer to recommend concepts rather than specific products so they dont think im just hawking wares.
More often than not, developers are just unaware of a lot of newer lighting choices and are tempted to cookie-cutter copy a previous design elsewhere that might be less than ideal, so I eventually dig up cut sheets of specific manufacturers for examples.

http://www.softlite.com/product.htm
http://www.softlite.com/whysls.htm
http://www.lighting4sport.com/sportslighting.asp?sport=sn03
http://www.selux.com/cms/products/exterior/pdf/465_cc5.pdf
http://www.selux.com/cms/products/exterior/pdf/455_cc5.pdf
http://www.selux.com/cms/products/exterior/pdf/Lamps3_cc5.pdf
http://www.selux.com/cms/products/exterior/pdf/S455_SS.pdf
http://www.selux.com/cms/products/exterior/pdf/CL150_SS.pdf 
http://www.qualite.com/DesignBaseball.html

Other's experiences:
http://www.seattle.gov/parks/proparks/projects/LoyalHeightsBoards.pdf

There are more, of course, as almost every manufacturer that makes a bad light also makes a good one they keep in the back room for some reason.

In any case, I would want to get across the message that lighting like Skelly Stadium and the Fairgrounds are among the less ideal.

[patric]

I don't think this will be an issue at all.  ODOT had to sign off on the design including the lights.  Populous (HOK Sport) has designed many ballparks tucked right into urban areas and freeway interchanges, so I am sure they are sensitive to this sort of concern as are the lighting manufacturers themselvses.

Not that I dont trust ODOT,
but if they have OK'd the lighting, what did they OK?

[patric]

added a central inset with a spotlight shooting up (or you could add something that sticks out and "contains" the beam, ala the new PAC lighting)  and some lights shooting up on the Zink.

Consider that inset as perhaps being a subtle source of illumination itself, rather than a target that you may or may not get light projected on. 
Think of LEDs behind glass bricks, for example, or even a moderate amount of neon.  The PAC lighting is not a good design IMHO because of all the spill and waste.

[TheArtist]

What would really be neat is, well what it looks like is big pieces of stained glass. LEDs or neon in an inset or hidden behind a raised element might be the easiest thing to consider. What I am always afraid of when making suggestions is their cost and effort. So I try to make ones that dont change thing too much and can be easily visualized and figured out. One can imagine they will take a glance at it, decide right then whether they like it or not, then even if they do, will instantly consider different possibilities for how work and the effort that will require. If its more than its worth or they stumble on figuring out a quick, easy, cost effective solution . The suggestion goes right out the window.

If you dont catch people and convince them in the first 30 seconds, its a no go and in the pile with dozens of other neat ideas everyone will have.

As with any project, or painting even, you have to eventually say, ok, its good, this works, lets get a move on. You can keep tweaking, piddling and shifting off in a dozen, all perfectly wonderful directions, forever.  Unless its a quick "oh yea I like really that and we can do it" kinda thing. Best to move on.   

[SXSW]

So are the Deco details shown in the renderings (above the windows) the ones salvaged from old buildings in Tulsa?  I hope so, because that is really cool and a nice 'local touch'.

[patric]

A HOK (Populous) stadium in Memphis:

[AVERAGE JOE]

After all the months/years of arguing and explaining why a ballpark facing southeast is perfectly acceptable, something dawned on me this afternoon.

ONEOK Field won't even be the first baseball stadium in Tulsa to face southeast. Not by 30 years or more.
+ORU Johnson Stadium

They built that ballpark on vacant land. They could've faced that stadium northeast just as easily, but didn't. I've never heard a single complaint about the direction ORU's home field faces in its entire existence.

[Chicken Little]

After all the months/years of arguing and explaining why a ballpark facing southeast is perfectly acceptable, something dawned on me this afternoon.

ONEOK Field won't even be the first baseball stadium in Tulsa to face southeast. Not by 30 years or more.
+ORU Johnson Stadium

They built that ballpark on vacant land. They could've faced that stadium northeast just as easily, but didn't. I've never heard a single complaint about the direction ORU's home field faces in its entire existence.

+1

[cannon_fodder]

When 900 ft tall Jesus tells you to place a ballpark facing Southeast, you just do it.  No questions asked. 

ONEOK Field at least has reasons to deviate form the norm.  Like it or not, there are reasons.  Looking at a freeway sucks, looking at downtown is cool.  It invites people to walk through the area to get to the entrance.  Embraces Greenwood and utilizes existing streets as lines for the stadium.

Why ORU actually did that, I have no idea. 

[Rico]

When 900 ft tall Jesus tells you to place a ballpark facing Southeast, you just do it.  No questions asked.   

Cool Man........!  The way things are going they made need this dude.

[SXSW]

Webcam image taken 1/19/10.  Getting closer to being finished!

[sgrizzle]

Webcam image taken 1/19/10.  Getting closer to being finished!

If you look at the SW corner, there is an oil derrick