NEWS 24 THE ARCHITECT’S NEWSPAPER FEBRUARY 1, 2017
Site and on the National Register of Historic Places, the field wa razed in 2009. The land was quickly overgrown and, as a result, the Navin Field Grounds Crew was founded. After repeatedly being chased off by the police, the NFGC eventually convinced the city to maintain the diamond on the site of the old stadium. The NFGC made up of volunteers, and it is funded completely out of the pockets of those volunteers. Even so the crew has been out at the Navin Field diamond most Sundays for the last six years. Now they are taking on a new challenge, revitalizing the Hamtramck Stadium. PLAY BALL continued from front decided to save, at the very least, As with Navin Field, the crew page of neglect, the Hamtramck the memory of Navin Field. Located plans to roll out their personal Stadium may see America’s favorite in the Corktown neighborhood, lawn mowers and rakes, and get to pastime once again. Navin Field was home of the Detroit work this spring. It all started six years ago when a Tigers from 1912 through 1999. The difference this time is that group of baseball-loving Detroiters Despite being a Michigan Historic the NFGC won’t be alone its efforts. ANDREW JAMESON/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
When restored, Detroit’s Hamtramck Stadium’s grandstand will be able to hold over 1,000 spectators.
In January, the National Parks Service, announced a $50,000 African American Civil Rights Grant for the redevelopment the stadium. Even before that, a new group, Friends of the Hamtramck Stadium, was making plans to raise funds this coming summer to repair the stadium’s grandstand. Built in 1930, the Hamtramck Stadium was home to the Detroit Stars and Detroit Wolves throughout the 1930s. Site of the 1930 Negro National League Championship Series, the stadium saw its share of famous baseball players, including Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell. The stadium was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. Currently, the stadium is in the configuratio that was established in the 1970s. The main remaining structure, a large grandstand, has not been
used since the 1990s. Like Navin Field, the hope is to bring baseball back to the neighborhood. As originally built, the Hamtramck Stadium could hold upward of 8,000 spectators. Much of the grandstand is original, but over the years it has been reduced from its original size, and is now able to hold about 1,500 spectators. The stadium wouldn’t be the first in Hamtramck to be revitalized Last year the Detroit City FC soccer team redeveloped the Keyworth Stadium, bringing another classic civic space back to life. In a time when nearly $2 billion is being spent in Detroit’s downtown to build the Little Caesars Arena and entertainment district, Detroiters are demonstrating what they really value with their lawn mowers and weekends. MM
long, Chicago residents were cut off from an asset in our own backyard. So today, we are transforming our rivers from relics of our industrial past to anchors for our neighborhoods’ futures.” Like Studio Gang’s earlier iteration, the Eleanor Boathouse takes its form from the rhythmic movements of rowers. Divided into two structures, undulating rooflines allo for clerestories, which bring soft light into the project. The lofty interior of the 13,171square-foot boat storage structure can hold up to 75 boats for use by several rowing teams, clubs, and organizations. The other structure is a 5,832-square-foot field hous that contains a multipurpose community room, main office, open seating area, restrooms, and showers, and can accommodate 57 “erg” machines, which simulate rowing movements for training purposes. A dark zinc facade wraps most of the project, while one face of the boat storage building is a custom green gradient window screen. While Chicago’s winters can be brutal, the boathouse is already under heavy use. Rowing teams train in the river nearly year-round and there is also classroom and activity space for after-school and community programs. “This connects us to the origins As the first snow of the season fell, a larg Gang Architects and the final of four boa resources along the shore. The boathouses of the city. The river is the first reason tha crowd gathered along a quiet bend in the houses planned for the Chicago River. specifically provide space for rowing team the native peoples and eventually Fort South Branch of the Chicago River. Jovial The boathouses are part of a much larger to train, kayaks to be rented, and people to Dearborn were settled here,” said Studio groups of teens, community members, and movement within the city to connect the public directly access the water. Gang’s Managing Principal Mark Schendel public officials were all there for the openin with the underutilized river. Though the river “The Eleanor Boathouse supports the larger at the opening. “And it is that potential of the Eleanor Boathouse at Park 571 the in is still heavily polluted—two half-sunken movement of ecological and recreational to come back to that amazing resource and South Side Neighborhood of Bridgeport. The boats can be seen up river from the Eleanor revival of the Chicago River,” Chicago Mayor put citizens back on the water. It is the type boathouse is the second designed by Studio Boathouse—the city is quickly improving its Rahm Emanuel said at the opening. “For too of project, as architects, we love to do.” MM
STUDIO GANG COMPLETES A SECOND PUBLIC BOATHOUSE ALONG THE CHICAGO RIVER
Rowin’ on the River
TOM HARRIS
Located on a calm, post-industrial bend of the Chicago River, the Eleanor Boathouse’s form mimics the rhythmic pattern of rower’s paddles on the water.
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