Want a park? Ignore Chicago

October 24, 2005
CHICAGO. Perhaps the biggest contrast between the Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros is their ballparks. U.S. Cellular Field, the home of the White Sox and the ballpark that hosted last night's Game2 of the World Series, opened in 1991. Minute Maid Park, which will host Game3 tomorrow night in Houston, opened nine years later. But judging by their design, they might as well have been built 30 years apart. Remarkably, they were designed by the same architect HOK of Kansas City. That should serve notice to the planners in Washington who have employed HOK to design a stadium in Southeast for the Nationals. They should make sure they get a ballpark that more resembles Minute Maid than U.S. Cellular, a sore thumb among the new facilities that have been built during the past 15 years. U.S. Cellular then called new Comiskey Park opened 14 years ago right across the street from the old Comiskey on the city's south side. Immediately there were complaints: The stadium was too sterile. It didn't have the intimacy of creaky old Comiskey. The upper deck was too steep. Perhaps any ballpark forced to compete with the friendly confines of Wrigley Field would be doomed to disappoint. But Camden Yards, also designed by HOK, opened in Baltimore one year later, and new Comiskey went from perceived disappointment to disaster. Camden Yards, with its retro style and modern amenities, changed the game, influencing all ballparks that came after it. It made new Comiskey a $137million, taxpayer-financed embarrassment. They since have spent $80million to correct the stadium's flaws, taking 6,600 seats off the upper deck and installing a retro-looking metal roof over most of the upper deck. It is worth noting that those renovations were designed not by HOK, but by their rival, HKS of Dallas. The Astros didn't need to make changes at their ballpark when it opened in 2000 except the name, Enron Field (talk about embarrassing). The $250 million retractable-dome stadium successfully followed the Camden Yards blueprint. There have been tweaks here and there, the addition of some local flavor.

Source: http://www.washtimes.com/