First Review

By Nick Bosman

I have completed my first review of my design for a new baseball stadium for Montreal today. The presentation was to my committee and thesis chair. This review gave me a lot more to think about regarding to the design of the overall stadium. I found it incredibly helpful to have this review. I initially was not the first review to happen but due to the snow day yesterday, mine wound up being the first one.

            This review opened up the possibility of new decisions that I could possibly make. The most significant one that I think could really make this project unique is the connection of the stadium to Montreal’s underground city. Montreal’s underground city is a network of tunnels underneath the downtown business district that connects various buildings. One main reason for the underground city is to create a covered connection to different buildings so that people are sheltered from the elements of Montreal. Connecting to the underground city would mean that the entire ballpark would be shifted down below grade so much that the first main concourse would be at grade level rather than the field be at grade level. This possible connection would increase the interest in going to the stadium for the people of Montreal.

            Another main thing to take away is who I am building this for. My initial plan was to create a stadium with the playability in mind. The old stadium for the Expos was rated the worst stadium to play at in the MLB. I wanted to design with baseball in mind. A great point that came up about this philosophy of designing is that the players, who I was initially designing for, cost money, whereas the customers make money. So the design should be oriented to the costumer and what they would pay for. This is an excellent point and I am grateful that this came up so early in the design. Where I am no with the design is the basic structure of the stadium and the levels in which to place the “bare bones” of the program. Now that I have that, I can design around it and be confident that it is functional. I need to see what the costumer would want to pay for because that is the ultimate thing that will keep the stadium and the team operational.