The proposed stadium would be designed to keep bad weather out, let in light and hold in noiseHOK
The ownership group working to land an MLS team in St. Louis has "designed an open-air stadium with a natural-grass field 50 feet below street level, ringed by 22,000 seats in two tiers," according to a front-page piece by David Hunn of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Renderings of the proposed stadium include a "wide, long awning of clear plastic architectural sheeting" that shelters the seats, "keeping out weather, letting in light and holding in noise." Enterprise Holdings Foundation President Carolyn Kindle Betz, who leads the St. Louis MLS group, said that the released renderings are "conceptual." The release of the renderings "serves two functions for the ownership group: It demonstrates to MLS owners that the St. Louis bid isn't taking Thursday's good news for granted," and it "generates fan excitement as MLS4TheLou moves into a few key months." The St. Louis ownership group "visited six MLS team sites as it gathered data for its design." That information led designers to work on a stadium proposal in the "spirit of modest, low-slung European club venues." No seat is "farther than 120 feet from the field; the closest are just 20 feet away." The ownership group is "collaborating" with a design team of St. Louis-based architecture firm HOK and Snow Kreilich Architects co-Founder Julie Snow (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 4/21).
KNOCKING ON THE DOOR: In St. Louis, Ben Frederickson wrote "quiet yet confident leadership has pushed this effort to the doorstep of success." The St. Louis group "doesn't throw things to the wall to see what sticks." The "diligence and attention to detail that showed in the cross-country research of do's and don'ts for a downtown soccer stadium set a precedent that has been followed since." Frederickson: "Don't overlook the leverage play the group made in its conversations with [MLS Commissioner Don] Garber, when it made clear it had no interest in twiddling its thumbs as expansion teams were awarded elsewhere." This group's "direction and conviction bodes well for the future" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 4/21).
