The Washington Nationals are making improvements to Nationals Park for the 2009 season, upgrades that team President Stan Kasten said will complete the look of a facility that opened last year after a short, 22-month construction schedule.
The Nationals, working with HOK Sport, the ballpark’s architect, are replacing the center-field restaurant’s fixed glass wall facing the field with sliding glass to develop a better connection to the game, Kasten said.
The plan is to remove the last row of 32 fixed seats in center field in front of the restaurant, called the Red Porch, and add more tables, seating 44 people in that space. The concrete back wall will be removed and replaced by roll-up garage doors that open up that side of the building, creating 88 outdoor seats facing the center-field plaza.
The eatery’s menu and interior will also take on a different look, but Kasten declined to provide details. The Nationals would like to open the Red Porch for lunch and dinner on non-event days when the team is on the road, but nothing is definite for extended hours, Kasten said.
A row of fixed seats in front of
the Red Porch will be replaced
with more tables.
“We may experiment. We’ll see,” he said.
Other changes to the center-field plaza include installing a stage for live music, building a larger pregame set for local broadcasters to use on game days, and erecting statues honoring Washington baseball legends Walter Johnson, Josh Gibson and Frank Howard.
Kasten declined to say how much the upgrades cost and whether the Lerner family, the team’s owner, is paying for the additions.
Erik Moses, CEO for the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, which owns the ballpark and financed most of the $693 million facility, said a combination of public and private money is being used for the projects.
The commission provided the Nationals with $4.25 million in contingency funds left over from the original budget after settling a dispute with the team in November over who should pay for the final touches, Moses said.
The center-field plaza, where the Lerners invested millions to upgrade beyond what the commission budgeted for that area, “was the last thing turned over to us the day before the opening,” Kasten said. “We did not get it finished the way we wanted.”
GENSLER’S A GO: Veteran sports designer Ron Turner recently joined Gensler, an architecture firm whose work includes mixed-use projects planned next to facilities proposed for the Oakland A’s and Sacramento Kings.
Turner comes to Gensler after working the past three years at RTKL in Los Angeles. That firm that helped AEG develop L.A. Live, the entertainment district across the street from Staples Center.
Turner said he hopes to be part of the Gensler group working for A’s owner Lew Wolff as Wolff continues the search for the right construction site in Fremont, Calif. 360 Architecture’s Brad Schrock, a former colleague of Turner’s at Ellerbe Becket, has done design work for the A’s ballpark.
Last week, Turner was in Paris competing to design a 15,000-seat center-court facility with a retractable roof at Roland Garros, site of the French Open. Turner, teaming with veteran sports executive Marshall Glickman and French architect Christian de Portzamparc, said he is the only American designer vying for the job.
Glickman brought the project to Turner’s attention while Turner was still at RTKL. Their relationship dates to when Glickman was president of the Portland Trail Blazers and Ellerbe Becket was designing the Rose Garden.
Don Muret can be reached at dmuret@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
