New headquarters for major league baseball |
Wednesday 21 Apr 2010
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With ample space for meetings and events that were formerly held off-site, the new 24,000 sq ft conference center encompasses expanded workspace; a 1,500 sq ft sub-dividable multi-purpose room with advanced audio-visual and teleconferencing capabilities, which can accommodate up to 299 people for staff meetings, team owner meetings and press conferences; and eight meeting rooms seating from eight to 24 people.
Throughout the conference center, design elements infer baseball references. Textures inspired by the sport—base-like fabrics, baseball stitching in leather panels, aluminum, steel, terrazzo and wood—combine to create unique interiors. Glass walls are etched with baseball statistics, changing seasonal displays showcase historic memorabilia from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., streaming videos reprise information from the MLB website; baseball news and headlines appear on LED tickers throughout the facility; carpet-and-terrazzo flooring recalls a grass-and-dirt baseball diamond, conference tables are made of ash, the favored wood for baseball bats, and 'billboards' with changing graphics decorate the multipurpose room.
The walls of the hallway leading from the reception area to the conference room showcase National and American League uniforms, which adorn heroic life-sized figures, standing hat in hand, as players do during the pre-game National Anthem; replacing their 'faces' are cogent facts and images of their home stadiums. In the conference center, a curved wooden wall— also made of ash and marked with horizontal bands of wood veneer recalling the lines and proportions of a scoreboard—traces the trajectory of a batted baseball; at various points, it is carved to form a 'dug out' for seating.
Butler Rogers Baskett