| From the July/August 2004 issue of New Urban News
A tale of two ballparks: San Diego outdistances Philadelphia PHILIP LANGDON |
 Petco Park sits tight up against the southern edge of downtown San Diego, served by transit. |
| Two major league baseball stadiums opened this spring — at opposite ends of the country and at opposing ends of the urban design spectrum. Their arrival points up the continuing struggle over whether ballparks should emphasize ample parking or should fit into pedestrian-scale, mixed-use districts. On April 8, the 42,000-seat Petco Park opened at the southern edge of downtown San Diego. Designed by Albuquerque architect Antoine Predock in collaboration with HOK Sport + Venue + Event of Kansas City, landscape architects Spurlock Poirier of San Diego, and Roma Design Group of San Francisco, the $474 million stadium is helping mightily to revive a 26-block area designated as the “Ballpark District.” Four days later, 43,000-seat Citizens Bank Park, designed by Ewing Cole Cherry Brott of Philadelphia and the prolific HOK Sport, opened in South Philadelphia. Whether the Phillies’ $346 million stadium will do much for urban regeneration is doubtful. It’s surrounded by other giant-size sports facilities and by 20,000 parking spaces. Nobody was able to get the new ballpark built away from the South Philadelphia “stadium ghetto” where the Phillies previously played in Veterans Stadium, now imploded. With their good sight lines, both of the new ballparks have garnered praise. Where it faces the street, Citizens Bank Park has multistory buildings (containing team offices, services, and facilities for fans) that are clad in brick and stone, recalling traditional Philadelphia architecture. Near home plate, third base, and first base, illuminated 50-foot-high towers glow at night. An hour before the rest of the park opens, fans can make their way to a large food court called Ashburn Alley, where they watch batting practice, chomp down cheesesteaks, visit concession stands, or play baseball-related games. Lending character to Petco Park is the Western Metal Supply Company warehouse, which the architects have integrated into the stadium’s left-field corner. The 95-year-old warehouse contains the Padres team store, two floors of party suites, and a fourth-floor restaurant terrace with great views of the field, plus standing room on the roof. Petco also features the “Park at the Park,” which includes a grassy picnic hill where budget-minded fans can watch the game for $5 apiece. When no events are going on, the public can use the Park at the Park for free. Of the two stadiums, San Diego’s reflects the greater strategic intelligence. Philadelphia photographer Sandy Sorlien laments that NIMBYs (not-in-my-backyard folks) prevented the Phillies’ stadium from being built in more central locations — either just north of Chinatown or at Broad Street and Spring Garden on the northern edge of Center City. “Either of those spots would have been fantastic for urbanism — walking distance from trains, buses, and subways; near restaurants and bars; intimate views of the Center City skyline instead of the distant one we have now,” Sorlien says. |
San Diego’s ballpark is not exactly devoid of asphalt on its perimeter. Seven thousand parking spaces, including a 1,000-space garage are within three blocks, says Donna Alm, director of marketing and communication for Centre City Development Corporation, San Diego’s redevelopment agency. But on its northern edge, Petco Park is only a short walk from the restaurants, bars, hotels, and other attractions of the Gaslamp Quarter — an old pedestrian-scale part of downtown that has shed its shabbiness over the past 15 years.
Public agencies are coaxing Padres fans to use parking scattered throughout downtown or ride buses, trains, or trolleys to the games. At this early stage, the campaign is surpassing its goals, according to Michael Stepner, a local architect and former city planner. Whereas the local transit agency projected “perhaps 6,000 to 9,000” would ride public transportation to the first game, 20,000 actually did so, Stepner says. “About 50 percent of fans for the first games came via trolley, bus, and train,” Alm adds. Near the ballpark are three light-rail stations. In return for public financing for about $300 million of Petco Park’s cost, the city required team owner John Moores to invest heavily in the ballpark district, which covers a little over a third of a 350-acre area known as East Village. Engineering News-Record reported that Moores’ real estate firm, JMI Realty, “either self-developed or engaged others to develop $593.3 million of hotel, residential, retail, and parking structures.” The East Village, known for being rundown, is now on an upward trajectory. Developers with no connection to the Padres or the ballpark have launched housing developments that range from lofts to apartments for the elderly. “There are 32 developments, mostly residential, in an area nobody would live in before,” Alm says. The city wants the East Village and many of its buildings to have a mix of uses. In the projects approved so far, “the residential buildings all have commercial on the first floor,” Alm notes. “These are spaces where a grocery store or a major restaurant could go in.” Centre City is pushing for dry cleaners and other services that will make the neighborhood convenient for residents. “In two to three years, it will be a very complete-looking neighborhood,” she says. “It was always our feeling that this was more than a ballpark. It seems to have been a very successful strategy.”
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