Huntington Park is a hit

Sorry it’s been so slow today. Lots of workin’ for The Man. Anyway:

Ballpark Digest loves my hometown’s new ballpark. And I mean really, really loves it:

With this stunning new facility, the Clippers have come close: Combining a strong sense of place with the latest in ballpark features and an outstanding site, the creators of Huntington Park got everything right, creating a deep sense of place in a facility that’s only been open a few weeks. It does provide the ultimate baseball experience, providing an amazing level of intimacy in a venue seating 10,000 . . .

. . . Indeed, there are a lot of cool things at Huntington Park, which comes as close to perfection as we’ve seen in any ballpark. With an embedded sense of place, a firm grasp on the grand history of baseball and a commitment to the latest in fan comforts, Huntington Park represents the very finest in ballpark design and operations. While there are some new ballparks that come very close – as you’ll see when we write about Parkview Field tomorrow – there are none better.

I’ll admit that, while I was certainly impressed, I didn’t really grasp the coolness when I first visited the place a week ago. I’ll chalk that up to chasing small children, however, because I really didn’t get a chance to really take the place in. I’ll make a return visit soon, making a point to visit the parts of the park I didn’t see last week.

In the meantime, if you’re near Columbus, it sounds like you have a road trip in your future.

(thanks, as always, to Pete Toms)


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Andrew
14 years ago

What does “a deep sense of place” mean? That snippet mentions it THREE times, like a little kid trying to get a reaction out of some new joke he’s just picked up, and I don’t know what it means at all.

tadthebad
14 years ago

I had the same question as Andrew.  Must be important b/c of its frequent mentions.

Craig Calcaterra
14 years ago

Yeah, that is a hacky kind of term, but based on reading the whole review, I took it to mean that (a) the park really embraces Columbus’ baseball history, with tons of memorabilia and historical crap about the Columbus Clipper, Jets, and Redbirds; and (b) it integrates into the neighborhood very well.  It’s essentially in a warehouse district/site of the former state pen, and despite the fact that the palce is a couple of weeks old, it gives the sense that it’s been there forever without going on an over-the-top nostalgia kick.

That’s what I took from it anyway.

Ed Giles
14 years ago

I’d agree that it’s a very nice place in a very good location, but the review is a little over the top.  I missed the old metal seats we used to kick at Cooper Stadium for about 10 minutes, but soon recovered.  I wish the Levecque Tower wasn’t obscured by the AEP building on (at least) the third base side, but otherwise it’s pretty well done.  The four-sided beverage/food service island behind home plate is pretty genius.

Matt in Toledo
14 years ago

I think “sense of place” is a pretty common geography term, but it’s odd they didn’t expand on it since it’s not exactly in the general lexicon.

A common complaint by geographers and planners is that franchises and corporations rob America of a sense of place, and that usually means there are too many places where you could be plopped into and have no idea where in America you are because it’s indistinguishable from 100 other places.

The funny thing about the term is I always heard more about a “lack of sense of place” rather than somwhere having one.

ElBonte
14 years ago

The wife and I are taking a Cleveland and Detroit road trip this summer.  We’ve got a day off in between when the Clippers happen to be in town.  Now I just have to convince her that she’d rather see a minor league game than visit her friend that she hasn’t seen in a year.

Pete Toms
14 years ago

F***ing depressing.  The minor league ballpark here in Ottawa has no tenant for the first time in 17? years…may even be demolished….I really miss it..