News of the Arroyo
Title: | Rose Bowl rendered better |
Subtitle: | |
Date: | 2003-04-24 |
Summary: | April 24, 2003 - The Pasadena Star News cautiously approves of the new renderings for the NFL in the Rose Bowl. |
Author: | Editorial |
Publication: | Pasadena Star News |
Content: | The problem with skillfully done architectural renderings is that it can be hard to know whether you\'re really going to end up with the Gamble House, as depicted, or the pre-fab plastic garden shack, as so often happens. The devil is always in the details: final designs, materials, landscaping, budgets. So we, along with other observers, can\'t fully commit to the latest iteration of Rose Bowl-rebuilding plans any more than you can fall in love on the basis of a nicely written ad in the Personals. But, after a meeting with the architects and a good look at their initial drawings, we can have a first impression -- and first impressions count. Clearly, NFL backers interested in remaking the hallowed Pasadena stadium into a place a contemporary pro team can play football have, as the parents say to the child, heard our words. The original, sketchy ideas, based on stadiums built elsewhere as additions to historical places, were non-starters. Though neither we nor the rest of the public were shown anything on paper, historical preservationists from Pasadena Heritage were, and they didn\'t like what they saw. But the oval bowls of yesteryear -- Yale Bowl, Rose Bowl, L.A. Coliseum -- have been out of favor for decades. Yes, you can cram around 100,000 people into them. Still, cascading so far away from the playing fields as they do, the seats in the nose-bleed sections and the end zones put fans almost impossibly far from the action. One first-time Rose Bowl concert-goer said he could hardly see the Jumbotron video screen, much less the stage. In order to provide the luxury suites and the closeness to the field economics and upscale fan tastes demand and at the same time preserve a profoundly historical building, architects had come up with schemes to literally build a steep little modern stadium within the old bowl. To preserve mountain sight lines for Arroyo Seco residents and visitors, they suggested lowering the level of the field dramatically. Certainly in the back of everyone\'s mind was how much easier and cheaper it would be to just knock the old girl down and start all over. It wasn\'t going to work, though. And when you\'re talking about a place that is properly listed as a national landmark, it has to work. Destroying the Rose Bowl to save the Rose Bowl isn\'t going to happen. With the drawings released Monday, though, everything has changed. In several ways, architects from the giant firm HOK Sport + Venue + Event have raised the aesthetic bar for the Rose Bowl, not lowered it. First off, they keep the bowl shape. Second, they restore the original oval field configuration. And, most dramatically, the plans force us to look at the reality of the current Rose Bowl rather than our utopian imaginary version. See all those tacky outbuildings littered around the perimeter over the decades -- the concession stands with the fake Spanish-tile roofs, the restrooms, the security headquarters? Get rid of them -- all of them, the architects say. See how the stadium is surrounded by a sea of paved parking lots in the supposedly natural arroyo? Lose the hardscape; make it all green instead; put the parking underground (if you\'ve got the bucks) or make most folks park at the Parsons shuttle or ride the Gold Line. See how the current press box and suites block the view line? Make new ones with walls entirely of glass, keep them at the same height, add some open space between the stadium lip and the boxes for even better views. See how every seat in the house is an uncomfortable one? Lose 10 rows of seating and give everyone six more inches for their knees. Not that anyone could think this is a done deal. There\'s the little matter of the $500 million price tag -- though none of it to be paid by Pasadena taxpayers. There\'s ownership and revenue-stream issues as complicated as the tax code. There\'s over a century of Tournament of Roses tradition: at least 20,000 fewer seats for members and for the college conferences; the probable need to hold the Rose Bowl Game elsewhere for one year or even two. UCLA football, the current primary tenant, certainly has a dog in this fight. The EIR is going to take at least nine months, and Pasadena neighbors are understandably going to have a lot to say about traffic, construction noise and indeed, the whole messy notion of pro football in their city. Problems and uncertainties abound. At this stage, though, the one thing we can say for sure is that the Rose Bowl as rendered would be a better stadium in a better Arroyo Seco than the one we have today. |
Url: |