They emulated the Camden concept of crafting a ballpark that fits with its context, preferably integrated into the urban fabric.Īrchitecture, particularly sports architecture, has become a commodity-underlying retro styles are recycled ad-infinitum, thrown away, and then repackaged with slight variations-because commodities are inherently replaceable. The most successful post-1990 parks didn’t blindly imitate the red brick aesthetic. The many post-Camden ballparks that engaged in this red brick McMansion mimicry did so at their own peril. With Camden Yards, the fact that red brick worked perfectly in the Baltimore context was a mere coincidence. The significance of the best “retro” ballparks aren’t red bricks or silly old-fashioned gimmicks, but the connection to their cities. While we’ll look at active historic ballparks in this article as well, I would argue that the retro-classic (we’ll use the term “retro” as a shorthand) trend ushered in by Camden Yards (1992) hasn’t been as strong as it should be with respect to the outside, especially compared to historical standards.Ī repetition of retro red brick and green wrought iron has swept the country’s ballparks, often when the context or situation didn’t call for it. Some are just self-evidently more attractive than others when scanning the inside at the ballpark or on T.V.īut what about the other twin hand of the ballpark aesthetic, the exterior architecture? Those views on the inside are also one of the core characteristics that separates a ballpark from a football stadium or an arena. Grand aesthetic visions are mostly framed by the inside, namely through a ballpark’s contextual integration of its environment, one of the core principles of all successful post-1990 ballparks.
In a national landscape of highly acclaimed ballparks with well-positioned skyline panoramas, captivating water views, and sweeping mountain vistas, so much of our attention is devoted to the interior aesthetics of America’s great baseball cathedrals. Ballpark Architecture: Ranking all 30 MLB Stadiums, based on Exterior Architecture