The red brick walls are there. So are the arched gateways and wide concourses that offer sweeping views of the city.
But the real story of the Baltimore Ravens' $220 million football stadium is not how much it has in common with its acclaimed green cousin to the north, Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It's how different the two turned out to be -- in size, scale and character.
Although there is a certain resemblance between the two structures, visitors will discover, starting with tomorrow's preseason opener, that the Ravens' home is a bird of a different feather.
There are no nostalgic references to the 1890s, no ornate scrollwork, no ornithologically correct weather vanes atop a vintage scoreboard. If Oriole Park were a graceful stroll into the past, the Ravens stadium is a rocket blast into the future. It's bigger, bolder, and brawnier than its intimate, old-fashioned neighbor.
"It's a strong presence," said Heidi Edwards, stadium project manager for the Ravens. "I can't imagine any building supplanting Oriole Park. This building doesn't say, 'Look at me instead.' It says, 'Look at me, too.' "
Both stadiums are the work of HOK Sports Facilities Group of Kansas City, a leading designer of sports architecture around the world. Six years ago, HOK set the pace with Oriole Park, the first of a string of new-fangled, old-fashioned baseball parks designed for downtown settings.
Now HOK is trying to set the pace again by adding a second major league sports facility to the first one, to create the first dual-stadium sports complex in an urban setting.
Kansas City's Harry S. Truman Sports Complex contains contemporary stadiums for baseball and football, but they're miles from downtown. With the completion of Ravens stadium, Baltimore has become the first city in the country to have two modern stadiums that are side-by-side and within walking distance of its major business and tourism districts.
For its follow-up to Oriole Park, HOK has produced a technologically sophisticated building that is likely to be as well received for football as its cousin has been for baseball.
Seats are close to the action while offering dramatic views of the city. Lounges and corporate suites are posh, without being predictable. Graphics are understated but effective.
The building has an honesty that befits Baltimore, with its working-class heritage. It makes subtle references to the area's history, from an old piano factory to the prehistoric forest that once occupied the site. It will be well served by mass transit.
The stadium even passes the blimp test, with wing-like upper decks that help make it instantly recognizable from the air as the Ravens' roost.
Though built as a football stadium, this is actually a multi-purpose facility, with the meeting rooms and electronics needed to accommodate events from concerts to revivals.
In many respects, it's the new American coliseum -- an open air sports and entertainment complex capable of drawing huge crowds well into the next millennium. That's how this boisterous behemoth promises to round out Camden Yards and distinguish itself from its predecessor.
'Cousin to Oriole Park'
The rationale for creating two stadiums that are compatible but different goes back to the original plan for the 85-acre Camden Yards property, developed as part of a civic strategy to increase the number of attractions around the Inner Harbor and lure people downtown by providing new homes for major league sports franchises.
But the plan didn't stipulate that Memorial Stadium be replaced by identical twins.
Located farther from downtown, with 20,000 more seats, the football stadium always was envisioned as the larger of the two. Furthermore, football's 100-yard grid is much different from the asymmetrical playing fields of baseball, and that required a different approach to seating angles and sight lines.
"This is a cousin to Oriole Park," said Steve Evans, project manager for HOK's design team. "It's not a brother or a sister or a son or a daughter. You can't copy Oriole Park or you diminish it."
The difference between the two buildings is immediately apparent in the way they occupy the two ends of Camden Yards.
To the north, Oriole Park is nestled next to two historic buildings that set the tone for its architecture, the B&O; warehouse and the historic Camden train station. On the south, Ravens Stadium occupies a former parking lot bounded by Hamburg, Russell and Ostend streets and the state's light rail and MARC lines.
While the baseball field was sunk 18 1/2 feet, the football stadium couldn't be buried so deeply because of a high water table.
The southern end of Camden Yards is more industrial than the north. There are no buildings nearby to provide a transition in scale between the stadium and the rest of the city, the way the B&O; warehouse does for Oriole Park. The strongest architectural influence is a tangle of elevated highways.
A different vocabulary
The architects took advantage of the contrast to develop a different vocabulary for the Ravens, one that starts with the traditional brick feel of Oriole Park but goes on to reflect the industrial nature of South Baltimore.
The base of the football stadium is clad in brick and precast stone, with arched openings all around. Its middle layer consists largely of alternating sections of glass and exposed ramps, punctuated by brick towers. The composition is more modern in feel than "retro" Oriole Park, designed at a time when post-modern architecture was the style of choice for many builders.
With its green-tinted windows and pewter-colored steelwork, the exterior evokes a factory from the 1940s or 1950s. But there is a clear pattern that reveals what's going on inside. Behind the glass walls are lounges and bars on the club level. The visible ramps lead to the seats.
Above the midsection are the stadium's most prominent element -- four upper decks that soar like the outstretched wings of a bird. This configuration is a departure from other stadiums, in which the upper deck is one continuous oval. Here, the architects eliminated the four corners, typically considered the worst seats anyway, to create notches that permit views into and out of the seating bowl. They also lowered the upper decks at the ends so the seats are closer to the playing field.
'Victory notches'
These corner perches -- dubbed "victory notches" by the team -- are destined to become popular gathering spots during the games. But notching the corners is just one way the design team altered the stadium to take advantage of particular site opportunities at Camden Yards.
On the north side, the landscaping architecture firm of Wallace Roberts and Todd of Philadelphia designed a playful plaza that helps bring the Eutaw Street experience from Oriole Park into the Ravens' domain and can double as a staging area for ethnic festivals and other short term events.
On the southwest corner, the same firm designed the landscape to look like a grand piano -- a sly reference to the Knabe piano factory that once occupied the site. The Ravens even acquired a vintage Knabe piano to display in one of the stadium lounges.
On the east, a new light rail stop has a pedestrian bridge that takes passengers directly to the game without crossing any streets or train tracks.
These touches show that the design team was serious about tailoring the stadium to its setting and creating a building that could be right only for Baltimore.
Unfortunately, they do not make up for what is perhaps the most disconcerting aspect of the new stadium -- the way it obstructs views of the city skyline for those approaching from the south. Because it's so tall and looms so close to Russell Street, the building also makes it difficult to see the two stadiums in tandem.
Accommodating the fans
Inside the football stadium, the designers' goal was very much the same as it was for baseball: to provide the best possible accommodations for the fans. If the NFL's goal used to be bringing the football game to the living room, the Ravens' goal seems to be bringing the living room to the football game.
Much of the pizazz is technological. The two end zone video boards are the largest of any football stadium in the country, and their images are remarkably sharp. Sound is distributed from 1,894 speakers. Lights are designed to keep the playing field free of shadow on the grayest of days. Concession stands and restrooms are plentiful. An innovative advertising arrangement offers sponsors the chance to buy "moments of exclusivity," leaving the arena itself relatively free of visual clutter.
Whereas Oriole Park has 48,000 seats, Ravens Stadium has more than 69,000 on the lower level, club level, in two rows of luxury suites, and the upper decks. The layout was designed to bring fans as close to the field as possible and, for the most part, it does. Seats on the sidelines come within 50 feet of the field; seats on the ends come within 20 feet of the end zone. Although some seats have turned out to be obstructed by railings, the vast majority have good sightlines and ample leg room.
Vibrant color
The purple seats may take some getting used to, but the vibrant color is another example of the Ravens' decision to create a stadium that suits their sport and personality, rather than copy their neighbor. In between the purple seats on the upper and lower decks, the Ravens opted for a pewter-colored club level that echoes the industrial materials elsewhere in the building.
One of the most pleasant surprises of the interior is the attractive series of lounges and bars for patrons of the suites and club seats, designed by the local firm of Cho, Wilks and Benn. The local architects used an unconventional but pleasing palette of materials and colors that play off the industrial feel of the exterior, such as dark polished concrete for the bar surfaces.
The lounges aren't accessible to everyone who comes to a football game. But because they can be used for other events, including parties and receptions, they're a key to keeping this stadium busy far more often than the 10 National Football League games -- two preseason and eight regular season -- every year.
One particularly impressive space is the north lounge, featuring high ceilings and a dramatic view of the downtown skyline. Of particular interest are the delicate canopies over the bars, which have a sort of birdlike construction that seems fitting for the Ravens. Topped with purple neon lights, they provide just the sort of visual punch that's needed in large spaces such as this.
The graphics, by David Ashton and Associates of Baltimore, are intentionally understated to pick up on the spare, Bauhaus-like quality of the architecture. They include handsome, sans serif lettering for the gates and suites, and colorful banners that mark restrooms and concession stands. Ashton also was responsible for many of the Raven symbols and images throughout the building.
Knowing when to stop
The best thing about Ashton's graphics work is that he knows when to stop. By comparison, at the new Panthers stadium in Charlotte, fans are "panthered" to death by giant animal sculptures at the entrance and faux claw marks all around. There are more than a few Raven touches here, including Raven medallions on the exterior, raised Raven images at the end of each row of seats, Raven banners on the light poles and Raven heads on the scoreboards. But the kitsch quotient was kept low enough so that no one is likely to get "ravened" to death here.
If there's anything missing from the Ravens Stadium, it is one signature feature that will forever make it a one-of-a-kind stadium that could only be in Baltimore -- the equivalent of the Warehouse at Camden Yards.
Fortunately, the feature that's needed already exists just south of the stadium -- the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River.
During the construction period, Maryland Stadium Authority representatives spoke about the possibility of expanding the Camden Yards renewal area south of Ostend Street, so it stretches to the waterfront. There was even talk of fans being able to arrive by boat someday. The stadium authority wasn't able to move ahead with that vision because it never received power from the state's General Assembly to acquire land south of Ostend Street, or funds to do so. As a result, links to the waterfront are tenuous at best.
Link to the harbor
Now that the stadium is poised to open, the idea of creating a direct link to the harbor is worth another look. It's one feature that would make this stadium unique, a crowning touch that would benefit the home town as much as the home team.
If Camden Yards provided any lessons for Baltimore and Maryland, it's the value of having a big idea, and executing it well. Tomorrow's opening of the Ravens stadium will mark the culmination of a decade-long effort to build a dual-stadium sports complex near the heart of the city. But in many ways, the city and state have only begun to tap into the potential of this emerging part of town.
Pub Date: 8/07/98