By Mark Haverstock

PROJECT TEAM Designer: Antoine Predock Architect PC, Albuquerque, N.M. Executive Architect: HOK Sport+Venue+Event, Kansas City, Mo. Stone Suppliers: Stone A.V., USA, Plano, Texas; and Modern Builders Supply, San Marco, Calif. Stone Installer: Klaser Tile, Chula Vista, Calif.

You can see it all, whether it's an action-packed baseball game or a breathtaking view of downtown San Diego and the surrounding areas. Petco Park, home of the Padres, provides a window to the best of this southern California community. It's located just a few blocks away from the Gaslamp Quarter and the convention center, and completes the connection between Balboa Park and the bay.

Petco Park isn't your typical sports stadium. "The thing that's really different and exciting about the park is the way the building doesn't have an urban faŤade, a vertical faŤade," said Antoine Predock, design architect for the project. "Instead of that, the functions that are normally absorbed underneath the grandstands, such as team offices and club lounges, are pulled out almost like drawers to create these natural stone, garden terraces. In doing so, there's a space created between the garden terraces and the grandstands, which is open to the sky concourse. We've created a ballpark with an outer terrace building, inner garden, ballpark and playing field itself."

Night view of lighting tower and Third Base Building.
Photograph © Timothy Hursley / The Arkansas Office

The towers are another feature that makes Petco Park unique, giving it an iconic presence on the downtown skyline. These towers support the field lighting, as well as contain special suites and viewing platforms. They act much like anchors for the back of the seating bowl, which is light and skeletal in composition, allowing natural light and breezes to enter the concourse spaces.

HOK Sport+Venue+Event provided the know-how for designing the house seating plan and amenities for spectators. The seating bowl is divided into distinctive neighborhoods, with all 42,000 fixed seats providing ample legroom and built-in cup holders. Seats down the first- and third-base lines are angled toward the infield. The two upper levels are built on extended cantilevers, with the front of the terrace level situated only 34 feet above the field. This gives fans the sense of intimacy of a smaller venue and a great view of the action, no matter where they sit. "They really are experts at determining the perfect site lines at the perfect distances," Predock explained.

	Home Plate Plaza entry for Petco Park. Photograph © Timothy Hursley / The Arkansas Office

Today's baseball fans cruise around a lot, and when you cruise Petco Park, you're always in touch with the game because of the open area under the grandstands. "You can go out to the terraces and still keep track of the game while looking out over the harbor or looking toward Coronado Island, toward Balboa Park or the downtown skyline," Predock said. "There are numerous paths you can follow." There is also a park enclosed within the ballpark — literally a city park on a grassy hill just beyond the center field bleachers seating area. On non-game days, it's a city park; during the game, you can picnic and watch the game from this location, aptly named Park at the Park.

Sandstone used for this project, dubbed "Padre Gold," was chosen to be in harmony with its surroundings — the color of the local soil and the color of the cliffs at Torrey Pines along the San Diego coastline. The owner, architects and contractors traveled to India to select the stone with the perfect color and hardness from a large range of samples. A year of quarrying produced the 150,000 square feet needed for the project. The bulk of the stone was provided in cut pieces approximately 2'x1' to 2'x2' for installation.

Outside walls, including the towers, are stone-facing panels hung from walls. "The stone was used extensively on the garden terraces," Predock said. "We wanted the building to have in its perimeter conditions a very strong relationship to its location." Some stone was used in combination with stucco, because stucco is a very commonly used material in the region. Stucco color also related very well to the stone color."

An added touch was the incorporation of a historic building, the Western Metal Supply Company, into the ballpark on the left-field side. This renovated 96-year-old building houses the Padres Team store on the first level, the second and third levels contain party suites, and the fourth floor features a restaurant with terrace dining and a superb view of the field. The left-field foul pole is attached to its southeast corner. "In fact, the Western Metal Supply nestles in very nicely with the modern building that encompasses it," Predock added.

Aerial view of Petco Park, looking toward Coronado Island.
Photograph © Timothy Hursley / The Arkansas Office

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