Tuesday, October 16, 2007

HOK Officially On Board

Baltimore's Oriole Park at Camden Yards

City hires ballpark designer
HOK Sport's work includes Baltimore's Camden Yards
Link

"The Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission on Monday approved a contract with a firm to design the $30 million ballpark that serves as the centerpiece to the Harrison Square development.

The commission approved a $1.7 million contract with HOK Sport, of Kansas City, Mo., to design and engineer the downtown baseball stadium. The international firm is responsible for designing many Major League Baseball ballparks, including Camden Yards in Baltimore, the first of baseball’s now-common retro parks."

"To comply with the tight construction deadline – the Fort Wayne Wizards hope to play opening day in the new ballpark in 2009 – construction on the project is likely to begin before all of the design work is completed."

"He said in a few months, the city should have new architectural renderings that show how the stadium will look when completed."

"The commission also hired Schenkel Shultz, of Fort Wayne, to design the 900- space parking garage that is part of the development."

"Leatherman said the commission is working to ensure local companies have as good an opportunity as possible to get the work for Harrison Square.

He said this is the commission’s standard practice, but is even more important with this project because it is supposed to benefit the community as a whole."

"The commission hired:

• Fleming Excavating, of Decatur, for $3.1 million for excavation work.

• L.A. Electric, of Fort Wayne, for $592,435 for underground electrical work.

• Dewatering Services, of Saranac, Mich., for $386,480 for water removal work for construction and the ballpark."

City hires architect firm for stadium at Harrison Square
Kansas City-based HOK Sport will let the city bid subcontractors locally
Link

"At its meeting Monday night, the Fort Wayne Redevelopment Commission approved a variety of contracts related to Harrison Square, the city’s $125 million-to-$160 million downtown revitalization project, including a $1 million contract with Kansas City-based HOK Sport to design the $30 million baseball stadium for the minor-league Wizards."

"Greg Leatherman, deputy director of community development, said HOK Sport, which beat out other national firms, usually likes to use its own subcontractors but agreed to let the city bid that work locally, also reducing the overall price."

"An early drawing of the stadium released in June includes features such as a miniature version of Boston’s Fenway Park, a grass berm between left field and center field where tickets will sell for $5, a state-of-the-art replay screen, an indoor batting cage accessible to early-arriving fans, seats closer to the field, and on-site bars and restaurants with direct views into the stadium."

7 comments:

Unknown said...

HOK is the best of the best in the ballpark design industry. Anybody want to take a stab if they designed our "perfectly good ballpark" Memorial Stadium?

Anonymous said...

I can't believe Keltys firm wasn't used.

Anonymous said...

They didn't like the way he tied his necktie.

Scott Bryson said...

It would be a pretty large undertaking for a one man firm. The best local choice would have been Design Collaborative.

J Q Taxpayer said...

Designing and building the ballpark is not the time for some local company, regardless to who, learn how to do it.

HOK knows what they are doing. So if there is cost over runs or mess ups it will land in the laps of the locals. So there will be no passing the buck or "show stoppers" with regards to HOK.

They have too much on the line to get involved in this SMALL proejct to risk the name of their company.

Having been to San Fran and St. Louis tells me they can and will do the job for which they are paid. Nothing less and nothing more.

Anonymous said...

Come on, Kelty could have done a great job. If things got screwed up, he'd find plenty people to blame.

J Q Taxpayer said...

I just got done watching Discovery Channel program called Build It Bigger. The show as about the building the new Washington Nationals Baseball Park. Guess who the designer is? HOK.....

It turns out the ballpark is build in PHASES and not like what some city officials stated.

It was impressive to watch the hour show. Even though are project is about 1/8 the size in seathing it brings a clear understanding to how it is done.

The show will be on the again on October 30th at 10:00 AM. So if you have a real interest you may want to set up to record the show if you are working.