Duchschere: St. Paul Saints aren’t in your grandfather’s ballpark
From Kevin Duchschere at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune on April 4, 2015, with mention of SABR member Kristin Anderson:
While architect Julie Snow has designed houses, restaurants, even border stations, she’s never done a ballpark. So she’s not exactly your typical sports facilities architect.
But then, the St. Paul Saints aren’t exactly your ordinary baseball team.
So the marriage of Snow and the quirky minor league club that produced CHS Field, set to officially open in May in the Lowertown district of downtown St. Paul, makes a certain amount of sense.
It’s a modernist stage for the team and its irreverent brand of entertainment, where the game sometimes seems to be an afterthought.
Instead of the red brick retro-style ballpark that some had hoped for, Snow delivered a sleek low-slung structure of black concrete and steel with cedar accents that offers wide views of the Farmers Market, Lowertown and the city skyline beyond.
The open design, she said, makes St. Paul the star of the show.
“Probably the most important aspect is how porous it is — to and from the city,” she said. “This is not a giant wall. It’s a park first and a ballpark second.”
Read the full article here: http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/298686521.html
Originally published: April 5, 2015. Last Updated: April 5, 2015.