BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The folks behind the new retro ballparks in Baltimore, Cleveland and Denver are poised to win the job of designing a new riverfront ballpark for the Reds.
ABOUT HOK
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HOK Sports Facilities Group, based in Kansas City, Mo., has a staff of more than 250 architects, planners and support personnel dedicated solely to sports architecture.
The firm has worked with 29 of the 30 NFL franchises and 22 of the 28 Major League Baseball teams. The firm has also designed facilities for basketball, hockey, soccer and rugby.
Its web page: http://www.hok.com/sport
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Hamilton County Administrator David Krings recommended to county commissioners Friday that they pick HOK Sport of Kansas City, Mo., and GBBN, a local firm, to design the stadium.
"We believe, with the selection of HOK Sport, that Hamilton County and the Cincinnati Reds will establish the next millennium of baseball parks," Mr. Krings wrote in a memo to commissioners.
Commissioners have a 9 a.m. meeting Tuesday to select an architect and construction manager for the project. Commissioner Bob Bedinghaus said he would "put an awful lot of stock in the staff's recommendation."
HOK Sport has worked with 22 of the 28 Major League Baseball teams and has designed more major-league ballparks than anyone. The firm has been consulting Hamilton County on stadium matters for the past two years and was in the running to design the Bengals' new Paul Brown Stadium.
HOK Sport spokeswoman Dawn O'Malley said Friday she couldn't comment on the recommendation because she hadn't heard about it. "If it happens, it's a great thing for us," she said. "All of our projects are."
Although HOK Sport has become known for brick and iron retro ballparks, Mr. Bedinghaus has hinted that such a design might be old news for a ballpark scheduled to open in 2002 or 2003. Whichever architect is hired will work with the county and the Reds to develop a design, a process likely to take months.
Nobody knows exactly what the new ballpark will look like. But the county's stadium deal with the team calls for a 45,000-seat ballpark, including 3,000 club seats and 51 luxury suites. The county and team have always discussed an open-air stadium with a natural turf playing field.
The county also has an "excellent relationship" with GBBN, Mr. Krings wrote. The local firm worked on the county's massive renovation of the Alms & Doepke Building downtown, as well as the county administration building and, more recently, the William Howard Taft Center.
The Taft Center, 230 E. Ninth St. -- which formerly belonged to the Hamilton County Board of Education -- was renovated last year. It now houses offices for the Ohio Court of Appeals First Appellate Division, the Hamilton County Probate Court, prosecutor and public defender.
"We believe the combination of HOK Sport and GBBN is a winning team for Hamilton County and the Cincinnati Reds," Mr. Krings wrote.
HOK PROJECT FILE
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HOK Sport has designed stadiums, ballparks and arenas around the world. The firm's project highlights include:
• Jacobs Field, Cleveland (above)
• Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, Raljon, Md.
• Alltel Stadium, Jacksonville, Fla.
• Trans World Dome, St. Louis
• Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong
• Kohl Center, Madison, Wisc.
• United Center, Chicago
• Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisc.
• Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, Calif.
• Pacific Bell Park, San Francisco
• Tigers' new stadium, Detroit
• Coors Field, Denver
• Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore
Source: HOK
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He also recommended that Indianapolis-based Huber, Hunt & Nichols, teamed with the local firm d.e. Foxx, be construction managers for the project.
"Huber, Hunt & Nichols is the leading stadium builder in the world. Over the last 50 years, they have built 45 stadiums and arenas," Mr. Krings wrote, including Riverfront Stadium before it was known as Cinergy Field.
Hamilton County has a tentative deal with the Reds to build a $297 million stadium on the riverfront site next to the Crown known as Baseball on Main or the "Wedge." That deal required the county to hire an architect and construction manager quickly to start work.
A measure on the Nov. 3 ballot asks Hamilton County voters whether they prefer the rival Broadway Commons site at Broadway and Reading Road. It's unclear whether that measure, if passed, would nullify the county's deal with the Reds.
But if the stadium gets built anywhere other than the riverfront, the selection process for an architect and construction manager likely would have to start from scratch, Mr. Bedinghaus has said. The other architect candidates for the job were:
Kansas City-based Ellerbe Becket, teamed with the local firm of Michael Schuster Associates.
Los Angeles-based NBBJ Sports and Entertainment, teamed with Glaser Associates, a local firm. The NBBJ-Glaser team designed the new Bengals stadium, which is under construction and expected to open in August 2000.
