I’m a little pressed for time this morning, but I did want to share with the schadenfreude lovers among you this review of the Worcester Red Sox‘ new $160 million stadium by GoLocalProv architecture critic Will Morgan, which is a master class in well-honed disdain. Let’s start with this:
Its public face is that of an Amazon warehouse or a giant shipping container.
Oof. Though, really, it’s tough to argue:
On the positive side, writes Morgan, “Polar Park is beautifully sited in term of views of
Worcester. You can see the field from all the seats, and the touted mirror image of Fenway is almost believable.” But then he shifts gears to the bigger question of whether it can bring about a renaissance for downtown Worcester — something that you may recall has been a bone of contention ever since team owners employed economist Andy Zimbalist to make that claim — and rules: Naaah.
When the novelty wears off in a few years (as studies of Triple-A parks suggest it will), the aftertaste will be one of debt. What did the Commonwealth of Massachusetts get for their contribution, and when will Worcester’s outlay of bonded dollars see a return?…
Worcester heard the siren song of flimflam like that of the Music Man, with the seductive appeal of a magic solution to urban ills. Putting all your faith and dollars in a stadium was an exhausted planning trope decades ago. Will Polar Park really hold 125 events a year? Will it ever pay its own way? Will it attract middle class families to move to Worcester? Is this the best way to spruce up a city with an image problem?…
Right around the corner is Green Street, a somewhat gritty, crowded, but lively area of juice, coffee, and booze bars, a public market, ethnic shops and bodegas, and Thai, Mexican, and Vietnamese restaurants. Is this the kind of real city that will be replaced by the new development?
Excellent questions, all, even if not exactly architectural ones.
It’s also worth noting, of course, that this article appeared on a news site in Rhode Island, which is more likely to slag the new WooSox stadium because they’re still stinging from Worcester using it to lure their baseball team away after 48 years. Still, his observations are valid ones, and it’s hard to look at the included photos without thinking, “$160 million? Really?” I mean:
Worcester’s not too far from me, so I’ll try to provide a firsthand report at some point. (Or maybe a secondhand report if I can find someone even closer to pay a visit.) Honestly, word that there are decent Vietnamese restaurants in town is a bigger draw to me than yet another generic minor-league ballpark — I should ask Zimbalist if that factored into his economic impact studies.
U-G-L-Y…you ain’t got no alibi. And I’m talking about the interior of the stadium, not the exterior.
As a somewhat decently travelled student of ballpark architecture across the USA over the last 25 years, this is easily in the Top 3 of butt ugly ball parks.
$160M…really?! Not value for money.
As I said when Maureen originally posted the link, this looks so bad I wondered if they had accidentally switched before and after photos or something…
I would love to see some of these privately built with public funds facilities audited by an independent third party (not the government who agreed to fund it or the franchise owner who got to set the specification despite putting little or no money in).
I just don’t see any way they could have legitimately spent $160m on that embarrassing piece of crap. $60m? Sure. Maybe even $80m if they were particularly incompetent and kept changing specification after the design documents had been agreed and issued.
If that is true, where did the rest of the money go? Are there some mysterious fees or payments to some group involved? Did the team (or an affiliated business) get paid to monitor construction of it’s own publicly funded stadium?
An actual audit would determine where the $160m went… every dime of it, if the audit were thorough enough.
There’s no soul, no love with this ballpark. If it was a basketball arena, it’s layout would make sense, but a ballpark is meant to feel intimate, open. The lack of curves and boxy structures jutting out everywhere gives the park an almost dystopic feeling. Like, you’re watching the Halnyx Conglomerate Units compete in the Northeast District Diamond Entertainment League after a 10 hour shift at the assembly line.
I actually went to see the game there today (May 16). I like to consider myself a ballpark aficionado – both minor and major leagues – had had some trepidation about seeing Polar Park in person given some of the pictures I’d seen. I’m afraid to report that seeing it in person did not help my perception. Ugliness from the outside aside, there was some rather inexplicable design decisions on the inside. I could show you pictures that would probably leave you scratching your head…light poles that block the mound/home plate area from congregate seating areas, a video board oriented so close to the foul pole that it can’t be fully seen from box seats on the 3rd-base side. The use of processed stone rather than concrete or pavers in the right field concourse seating area. And with so many boxy walls and carve outs there’s just a ton of seats that lose a good portion of the outfield corners.
Massive budget aside, I have to admit I’m still stunned from the experience, particularly since McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket had always been regarded as one of the “gold standard” minor league baseball experiences in the country. As a Connecticut native, I also have a hard time with the fact that the designers didn’t feel they needed to steal or build off any of the ideas that were used at Dunkin Donuts’ Park in Hartford. And on that subject, as much as the ballpark in Hartford was roiled by legal issues in controversy, the finished product has been almost universally praised by those who visit and work in and around MiLB. One would think the ballpark in Hartford was the sole AAA park in New England and not Worcester. I will generally be curious to see how that plays out in Worcester. Again, I’m just stunned that this is what they came up with.
Cannot get over how bad this looks brand new. The front of it looks like it was built in the 1960s or early 70s. And not just the design but the structure already looks old and tired.