Thinking Outside the Bowl: Queens Community Stadium at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park

Thinking Outside

BOWL the

Queens Community Stadium at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park

Kevin Jiang | Architecture Thesis

Advised by: Hal Hayes Jeff Davis Ray Gastil

Additional advisement from: Nina Chase Valentina Vavasis

Special thanks to Thesis coordinators: Josh Bard Sarah Rafson

Table of Contents Abstract 4 01 White Elephants and Failed (False?) Catalysts

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02 Strategies for Integration 39 03 Flushing Meadows, Then and Now

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04 An Alternate Recent Past

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05 Thinking Outside the Bowl

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Thinking About the Outside of the Bowl

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Selected Bibliography 172

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Abstract In particularly high-profile cases, stadia have generated serious concerns and controversy over their true costs and impact on communities. To justify the exorbitant costs of building a new stadium, it is often portrayed as a catalyst that will provide economic and social benefits. However, research has shown that that is rarely the case and some even become white elephants.

The ineffectiveness of the stadium is largely a result of development- and profit-driven priorities and a lack of integration with its physical, social, environmental, economic context. The value of the stadium should instead come from its ability to connect to its locality through those means.

This thesis seeks to rethink the role of the stadium—not as a catalyst, but as a component within larger urban planning frameworks. Its intent is to invite and involve communities in the life of the stadium, serve as an anchor for amenities and green space, facilitate ecological improvements, and establish consistent and varied uses at different scales both within and without the stadium bowl.

Set in an alternate reality beginning in the aftermath of New York City’s failed bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, the main site is a 2.1 million-square-foot piece of land remaining from the construction of Citi Field to replace Shea Stadium. Rather than keeping that as surface parking and roads like in reality, it will become an exciting addition within Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.

This thesis seeks to address these questions: • If the intent of the stadium shifts from an economic/commercial focus, how can the role of the typology be redefined and redefined in such a way that better serves the public good?

• How does this new role manifest itself in the architecture, programming, and urban design of the stadium and its adjacent surroundings?

• How can the stadium physically, socially, environmentally, and to a lesser extent economically integrate itself to its context?

• What service can the stadium provide that is related to and would be uniquely supported by the typology?

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The initial winning design for the Tokyo Olympic Stadium by Zaha Hadid Architects that was scrapped due to controversy over its cost and scale

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01 White Elephants and Failed (False?) Catalysts

Montreal Olympic Stadium, so beset by construction complications and a complicated design that it was unfinished during the Olympics and took decades to pay off, becoming known as “The Big Owe�

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Pitfalls and Potential of the Stadium Typology Oftentimes, stadium projects generate controversy due to concerns over their scale, costs, and impact and skepticism over how the outcomes will be any different from the litany of disappointments that came before.

We are most aware of high-profile, expensive failures, known as white elephants as well as controversial projects that claim to be catalysts.

White Elephants White elephants aren’t limited to just stadia. It refers to any building or any thing whose value does not make up for its cost. It’s a building project whose use is insufficient to make up for the exorbitant costs to construct it and continues to be a drain on resources.

There is increasing recognition that new venues should only be developed to meet a proven need and that venues that already exist, are temporary, or from nearby towns should be used in lieu of building a new one. However, cities and countries with ambitions to host a mega-event such as the Olympics or the World Cup in order to raise its profile on the world stage often succumb to the pitfalls that lead to the construction of white elephants. These are: bidding to win, showing off, external pressure, and supply-led development Bidding to Win In a competitive bidding process, prospective host cities are more likely to propose extravagant venues in order to impress the voting body. Feasibility is often exchanged for memorability and spectacle.

Showing Off The political leadership behind a bid often seek to impress an international audience and spare no expense in the design and construction of venues.

Political leaders often turn to starchitects to devise iconic, ambitious designs that maximize the symbolic impact at the expense of viable post-event planning.

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External Pressure International sport governing bodies often dictate specifications that lead to the development of white elephants. Meeting requirements for size, location, and specification of venues often leads to facilities that are inappropriate for their site.

Supply-led Development Venues for niche events, both sport and cultural, are often built despite the lack of an existing market that would use it because there is a belief that it can be a catalyst for increased participation in that event among regular people.

More often than not, it has not panned out this way.

As a result, venues built for mega-events such as the Olympics or World Cup become abandoned and derelict withing weeks or months after the event is over. Others have to find creative ways to use such cavernous spaces.

Andrew Smith, Events and Urban Regeneration: The Strategic Use of Events to Revitalize Cities

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Abandoned/under-utilized venues from the 2004 Athens Olympics and 2016 Rio Olympics

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Beijing National Stadium 11

Failed Catalyst, False Catalyst?

New stadia are built for a number of reasons. It may be to replace an existing facility that is deteriorated or inadequate. It may be part of a city’s effort to attract or start a new sports franchise. But it may also be a ploy to replace an “economically obsolete” facility with one that increases the value and revenue of a team.

Regardless of their intentions, teams must find ways to cover construction costs. Luxury boxes, club seats, catering facilities, and advertising opportunities create more sources for generating substantial revenue from higher-income fans. An overall increase in seats and ticket prices helps, as well. However, because players’ salaries depend on profit margins and are roughly proportional to team revenues, much of the additional revenue obtained from a new stadium goes toward their payroll. There is rarely enough revenue left to cover construction costs. In order to make up the difference, teams often convince and work with state and local governments to use public money. In order to justify the exorbitant costs of building a new stadium to governments and communities, it is often portrayed as a catalyst that will create jobs, attract businesses and tourists, revitalize parts of a city, generate civic pride, and elevate a city’s profile. However, research has shown that that is almost never the case.

Claim 1: Economic Growth Feasibility studies conducted by sports teams and city governments often project rosy predictions of a new stadium’s economic impact.

Reality: Independent studies have shown that there is no statistically significant positive correlation between the construction of sports facilities and economic development.

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Various studies have shown that there is no significant difference in personal income growth between the local economies of metro areas that hosted a team and that of those who didn’t. Nor is there an appreciable net increase in economic activity or employment in cities that acquired a new sports team after factoring out other economic trends.

• •

A 1999 study showed that new stadia and sports teams actually reduce per capita income in host communities.

They don’t stimulate economic growth because they account for only a fraction of a percent of local economic activity.

Claim 1a: City Revenue from Teams Reality: Professional sports teams do not contribute net economic growth because 5560% of team revenues is paid out to players while 40-45% goes to team owners and to help pay for additional costs. Much of the potential revenue from other sources levied on teams is lost due to leakages.

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Players and owners’ high income contributes largely to federal taxes and leads to higher savings rates.

They also don’t particularly spend that money locally. Most players and oftentimes owners don’t live year-round in the host city and neither do their families. Even if their primary residence was in the host city, they are more likely to travel outside of it and thus spend elsewhere.

Furthermore, while food concessions are much more expensive than other retail options, much of that price difference is lost to the facility concessionaire company.

Claim 1b: Job Growth Reality: Despite promises that a new stadium will create numerous jobs, only a limited number of skilled positions are created and those are filled with people already in the sport organization or recruited from elsewhere. The stadium front office may employ somewhere between 70 and 130 people. Most stadium jobs, 1,000 to 1,500 of them, are seasonal, temporary, low-paying, unskilled, and part-time.

John Siegfried and Andrew Zimbalist, “The Economics of Sports Facilities and Their Communities” Emily Sparvero and Laurence Chalip, “Professional Teams as Leverageable Assets, Strategic Creation of Community Value”

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Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium looming over disadvantaged African-American neighborhoods 14 Thinking Outside the Bowl

Claim 1c: Increased Spending Reality: The addition of a sports stadium does not generate significant contributions to local economies because most people have a limited budget to spend on leisure. Money spent on a game or patronizing the amenities around a stadium is money redirected from other local businesses and so the net spending is zero, or very close to zero. This is the substitution effect. A stadium could, however, attract new money into an area if it attracts patrons from outside the metro region.

Claim 1d: Increased Business Reality: A stadium by itself is most likely not going to have much economic impact on the rest of an urban core. The limited number of event days any sport creates makes the area not viable for many independent retailers to invest in adjacent businesses. Commercial activity and revenue is often confined within the stadium or to businesses and amenities that are geared toward attendees.

Other local businesses don’t experience patronage from game-day crowds or are pushed out by increasing costs.

Claim 2: Revitalization Stadiums are sometimes built on brownfields and near disadvantaged or declining communities as the centerpiece of an urban renewal project.

Reality: However, the mere presence of a stadium does not ensure that those who live closest to it reap the benefits. More often than not, claims about revitalizing neighborhoods are never realized even when there is an effort is made to try to provide benefits and services to these communities. As such, there are only a few, albeit qualified examples of a major sports venue providing some sort of boon. Instead, high-profile projects often raise concerns about diverted resources, gentrification, being pushed out by new development, lack of community engagement in the planning process, and who really stands to benefit.

John Siegfried and Andrew Zimbalist, “The Economics of Sports Facilities and Their Communities�

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Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next to the troubled, but recovering Tottenham district in London 16 Thinking Outside the Bowl

Claim 3: Increased Tourism Mega-events are often predicted to increase tourism for the host.

Reality: However, while that may be true in the months leading up to and after the event, tourism rates often return to normal levels and don’t experience a sharp, sustained increase.

• unsuccessful in sparking increased interest in visiting host city/country • in some cases, tourism rates have decreased afterwards despite attention generated from hosting a mega-event Claim 4: Increased Civic Pride and City Profile Having and making sure to keep a professional sports team is important for cities because it boosts morale and elevates the city’s profile.

Reality: There may be instances of increased self-esteem among residents from being home to a major sports team, but the quantitative effects are hard to measure.

The qualitative effects are anecdotal and it’s questionable if they’re benefits at all depending on how they affect productivity.

John Siegfried and Andrew Zimbalist, “The Economics of Sports Facilities and Their Communities”

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The disparity and segregation between Atlanta’s downtown and its poorest neighborhoods

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A number of recently completed stadium projects have tried to alleviate community concerns over its construction by claiming that it will provide such benefits for them and the city. But they continue to generate controversy and fears that the stadium is a Trojan horse meant to help replace disadvantaged neighborhoods with new, profitable development. People fear that the new stadium will raise costs and drive out local businesses while shutting them out of any benefits.

General Issues with the Typology Most stadia don’t become white elephants or claim to be catalysts, but even without these pitfalls stadia create numerous issues for cities that are dramatically and physically apparent.

Large-scale sporting events attract tens of thousands of people all at once, disrupting local community life and access to amenities, only to leave the site desolate and unused any time there isn’t an event.

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USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center during the U.S. Open

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The desolate Olympic Boulevard and plaza outside Sydney’s ANZ Stadium

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And then there’s the parking.

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Three Rivers Stadium

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Shea Stadium 24 Thinking Outside the Bowl

MetLife Stadium

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Dodger Stadium 26 Thinking Outside the Bowl

Truman Sports Complex 27

FedExField

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Potential for Improvement As noted earlier, not all stadia take on such lofty aims that set them up for failure. There have been a number of stadia that have made genuine, if not completely successful efforts to not just be an elite sports venue, but rather one that seeks to provide economic opportunity to disadvantaged communities it has been deliberately placed next to in the hopes of helping.

Stade de France

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And there are a few, albeit qualified success stories of stadia serving as catalysts to revitalize dilapidated parts of cities.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards 30 Thinking Outside the Bowl

Coors Field 31

Some have taken a strong physical stance that conveys ideas about the relationship they seek with people and the natural environment.

Munich Olympic Park

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Whether it’s through its form and materiality...

Tokyo Olympic Stadium 33

or its public accessibility

Tokyo Olympic Stadium

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or how it imagines its spaces to be used.

Hongkou Stadium renovation

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MLS Urbanism Most promising, there seems to be a new paradigm emerging in the United States with the rising popularity of Major League Soccer (MLS) that seeks to better integrate stadia into the existing fabric of the city and have it serve as an anchor for community amenities.

The recent and ongoing stadia projects in particular, begin to suggest an approach to design and programming that is especially focused on becoming a contributing part of city and weaving itself within the urban fabric. They create the potential for a future type of stadium that is driven less by a desire to maximize revenue, entertainment, and consumption, and is more interested in seeking to provide community resources, leisure, and wellness.

St. Louis Football Club stadium proposal

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02 Strategies for Integration

The Stade de France, placed next to a disadvantaged neighborhood with a desire to improve it, but despite providing physical connections and improvements, is not nearly as integrated into the community as it wants to be

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Underlying Cause: Lack of Integration To improve the chances for a stadium to succeed more as a community amenity or local institution, it must better integrate itself into its surroundings.

While the physical issues with stadia are evidently the most conspicuous, there are other types of issues more entrenched in perception and policy.

Drawing from multiple academic works related to this topic, I have categorized them into four different types of integration that stadia so often lack: physical, social, environmental, and economic. The issues with integration manifest themselves through a variety of symptoms, but there are a number of strategies to avoid, mitigate, or resolve them. These symptoms can detract from more than one category of integration and the strategies can address multiple symptoms in different ways.

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How to read the chart: In the example above, difficult physical accessibility contributes to a lack of physical as well as social integration.

A strategy is to tap into existing transit networks. Public transit can be a physical strategy because it provides a physical, infrastructural link to the stadium. It becomes a social strategy when the availability and use of public transit is actively promoted as a matter of policy.

Using the existing public transit infrastructure is also an environmental strategy because it means less cars are on the road to get to the stadium and idling in congested traffic. This environmental aspect doesn’t address physical accessibility, but rather the harmful moat of parking that typically comes with a stadium.

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How to read the strategy cards:

The symptom is how the lack of integration manifests itself. While the most conspicuous are those related to a lack of physical integration, some are less tangible and are related to perception and stigma.

The strategies lay out ways in which the underlying causes and symptoms can be addressed. Not every strategy can be applied at every site and it will have to take the right combination of strategies to minimize the obstacles to a stadium’s success.

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Strategies

Difficult Physical Accessibility PHYSICAL

• stadia typically feel unapproachable during non-event days • major roads, canals, and railways—especially those in post-industrial zones — create physical barriers to venues, almost like a border • surface parking physically isolates the stadium by creating a vast moat around it • critics have suggested that in some instances, physical connections are deliberately restricted from disadvantaged local areas

Design a Permeable Event Venue with a Face to the Community

challenge the typical section seen here zone 3: zone 4: internal concourse circulation area & concessions

opaque perimeter zone 5: open space

• • zone 2: seating

allow different levels of permeability within and without stadium on event and non-event days open up facade to allow views into stadium and out to community instead of containing and concealing the activities inside

PHYSICAL zone 1: field

SOCIAL

ENVIRONMENTAL

Balance Between Security and Approachability •

incorporate interesting and innovative security measures into the design of the open space and landscaping strategies • landscaped mounds, sustainable drainage systems, water features, and disguising physical barriers as signage are a few ways to create security buffers that feel less hostile to the public and are less obstructive to crowd flow

PHYSICAL

Reduce/Remove Non-porous Surface Parking and its Negative Impacts • •

reduce the footprint devoted to parking eliminate parking altogether if public transit is sufficient

PHYSICAL

Avoid (or Provide Connections to) Sites with Physical Obstacles to Access • •

avoid sites like isolated by major roads, canals, railways, and other obstacles if working with such a site, provide meaningful physical connections to neighborhood • create coherent transition between stadium and community

PHYSICAL

SOCIAL

Tap Into Existing Transit Networks • •

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pick a site within walking distance of transit stops to provide those who rely on public transportation a way of getting to the stadium encourage the use of public transportation to reach the site to promote its accessibility

Security

Strategies PHYSICAL

• necessary and constant part of our life and event venues cannot avoid this reality • can make people feel safe and secure going to an event • however, it does restrict physical access and can negatively affect access to other local institutions • security measures that cordon off the venue create a sense that you don’t belong there

Design a Permeable Event Venue

challenge the typical section seen here zone 3: zone 4: internal concourse circulation area & concessions

opaque perimeter zone 5: open space

•

allow different levels of permeability within and without stadium on event and non-event days

PHYSICAL

SOCIAL

Balance Between Security and Approachability

zone 2: seating

• zone 1: field

incorporate interesting and innovative security measures into the design of the open space and landscaping strategies • landscaped mounds, sustainable drainage systems, water features, and disguising physical barriers as signage are a few ways to create security buffers that feel less hostile to the public and are less obstructive to crowd flow

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Symbolic Exclusivity

Strategies PHYSICAL

• stadia symbolically detach themselves from communities they’re ostensibly meant to serve • promoted as prestigious, elite venues, so people perceive these venues as not being for them to use • venues built for niche/elite sports for major sport events are used by those from the wider region rather than by the disadvantaged people who live nearby • facade and sheer scale of the building create an imposing figure meant to induce awe • tend to be enclosed stands designed to face inwards, isolating spectators and players from the outside • opaque back turned to the public • difficult physical access to the site further reinforces this image

Design a Permeable Event Venue with a Face to the Community

challenge the typical section seen here zone 3: zone 4: internal concourse circulation area & concessions

opaque perimeter

• • zone 2: seating

zone 5: open space

allow different levels of permeability within and without stadium on event and non-event days open up facade to allow views into stadium and out to community instead of containing and concealing the activities inside

PHYSICAL zone 1: field

Avoid (or Provide Connections to) Sites with Physical Obstacles to Access • •

avoid sites isolated by major roads, canals, railways, and other obstacles if working with such a site, provide meaningful physical connections to neighborhood • create coherent transition between stadium and community

PHYSICAL

ENVIRONMENTAL

Reduce/Break Up the Height of the Stadium • sink the bowl

• •

decrease the monumentality and profile of the stadium by sinking the bottom tier into ground • if ground condition doesn’t allow that, a plinth cutting through may help reduce scale incorporating exterior terraces can help break up the height using extensive planting can reduce issues with scale and soften and obscure the mass

SOCIAL

ECONOMIC

Provide Free/Affordable Uses for General Public plinth

• • • •

de-emphasize elite image and have stadium serve as a community resource and hub provide programming for recreation, as well as healthcare, training, and educational services reserve facilities for community use at certain times of the week by offering free permits or lowcost memberships more open days/ community events so people can use them and feel comfortable being around

SOCIAL terraces/tiers

Appropriately Fill Gap in Sporting Infrastructure •

provide recreational facilities and amenities that meet community needs and interests

SOCIAL

Employ Strategies to Foster Celebration and Camaraderie •

provide game-related social events and informal social opportunities like viewing sites so that non-ticket buyers can participate as well

SOCIAL

Ensure True Community Involvement in the Planning from the Outset •

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have early, active, and consistent collaboration with the community to get their input on plans

Bubble/Island of Regeneration

Strategies

• event sites often appeal to potential visitors as an escape from everyday life or a distinctive place completely different from what is outside it, but this makes it difficult to integrate it with the surrounding area • stadia and any related development projects are sometimes developed as sanitized, gated communities that avoid connections with the surrounding neighborhood • investment and growth is often limited to the stadium and businesses/developments tied to it • physical barriers further deter integration

Reduce/Remove Non-porous Surface Parking and its Negative Impacts

PHYSICAL • •

reduce the footprint devoted to parking eliminate parking altogether if public transit is sufficient

PHYSICAL

Avoid (or Provide Connections to) Sites with Physical Obstacles to Access • •

avoid sites like post-industrial zones isolated by major roads, canals, railways, and other obstacles if working with such a site, provide meaningful physical connections to neighborhood • create coherent transition between stadium and community

PHYSICAL

Design Human-scale Streets • • •

make sure streets are at an appropriate dimension that can provide useable human space without isolating the venue from surrounding communities and the rest of the city in a post-event site, reduce the number of redundant paths that were originally meant to accommodate large crowds of people but should now handle normal, everyday volume integrate into the existing street grid to encourage pedestrian flow onto the site

PHYSICAL

ECONOMIC

Incorporate Into Existing Projects and Development Plans •

incorporate an event or event venue within promising, established projects and long-term ambitions so that investment and growth is more robust, reinforced, and extended along different urban interventions to areas further beyond the site

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Moat of Parking

Strategies

• creates a moat that completely isolates a stadium from its surroundings • the impervious asphalt paving exacerbates surface runoff and the heat island effect • lies fallow during non-event days, which is oftentimes most of the year • creates congestion before and after a game

Reduce/Remove Non-porous Surface Parking and its Negative Impacts

PHYSICAL • • •

construct sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) such as bioswales and permeable paving wherever there is surface parking to help absorb and treat runoff reduce the footprint devoted to parking by constructing Parksmart-certified parking structures or rely on existing parking facilities eliminate parking altogether if public transit is sufficient

ENVIRONMENTAL

Tap Into Existing Transit Networks •

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ENVIRONMENTAL

pick a site within walking distance of transit stops and encourage the use of public transportation to reduce the number of cars on the road

Strategies

Personal Financial Constraints ECONOMIC

• in order to recoup losses from development and construction, new facilities charge high entry fees/ticket prices • cater to higher-income users who have the means to play those sports • perceived as prestigious or elite, and therefore expensive, which deters locals from patronizing them because they believe that is not for them to use • sometimes, facilities are hired out to private users or private operators, making it more difficult to ensure access for locals

Provide Free/Affordable Uses for General Public • • • • •

de-emphasize image of being an elite sports venue have stadium serve as a community resource and hub provide programming for recreation, as well as healthcare, training, and educational services reserve facilities for community use at certain times of the week by offering free permits or lowcost memberships more open days/ community events so people can use them and feel comfortable being around

SOCIAL

Employ Strategies to Foster Celebration and Camaraderie •

provide game-related social events and informal social opportunities like viewing sites so that non-ticket buyers can participate as well

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Scale of Development

Strategies PHYSICAL

• disproportionate scale of development that doesn’t meet what is required for an area in the long term • can lead to oversized venues that are hard to fill without an anchor tenant and negatively affect atmosphere with sparsely-populated stands • large moats of parking and wide streets isolate the venue from the rest of the city and make the area desolate on non-game days while adding to the area of impervious surfaces • the incentive for cities to complete urban regeneration projects in time for a megaevent creates a danger of superficial redevelopment when resources are diverted to the most visible, but not necessarily the most impactful projects

Create a Gradation or Fragmentation of Scale • •

create a transition between the heights and massing of the stadium and the existing buildings use open space to create breathing room

PHYSICAL

Reduce/Remove Non-porous Surface Parking and its Negative Impacts •

reduce the footprint devoted to parking or rely on existing parking facilities

PHYSICAL

Design Human-scale Streets • • •

make sure streets are at an appropriate dimension that can provide useable human space in a post-mega-event site, reduce the number of redundant paths that were originally meant to accommodate large crowds of people but should now handle normal, everyday volume integrate into the existing street grid to encourage pedestrian flow onto the site

PHYSICAL

Reduce/Break Up the Height of the Stadium • sink the bowl

• •

decrease the monumentality and profile of the stadium by sinking the bottom tier into ground • if ground condition doesn’t allow that, a plinth cutting through may help reduce scale incorporating exterior terraces can help break up the height using extensive planting can reduce issues with scale and soften and obscure the mass

PHYSICAL

ECONOMIC

Appropriately Fill Gap in Sporting Infrastructure plinth

• • • •

determine a seating capacity that is appropriate and can be filled for regular event use downscale venues after a mega-event to meet local demand account for the current market interest in attending a sport event and consider adding the ability to expand should the market grow build a temporary structure to serve as a mega-event venue if there is no need for it post-event

SOCIAL terraces/tiers

Ensure True Community Involvement in the Planning from the Outset •

have early, active, and consistent collaboration with the community to get their input on plans

ECONOMIC

Balance Between Fixed Deadlines and Thorough Planning • •

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design plans to meet local needs not that of international event organizations avoid preparing projects in frantic haste to prevent inappropriate developments

Lack of Proper Planning

Strategies PHYSICAL

• preparing solely to deliver a mega-event without serious, deliberate planning for legacy use typically leads to abandoned, run-down venues within weeks or months of hosting the mega-event • cities face difficulties securing long-term users when venues are designed and built without future tenants in mind • the completion of a series of large-scale projects at the same time creates a hangover effect when it is all over because of postevent decrease in demand, overcapacity and unemployment

ECONOMIC

Incorporate Into Existing Projects and Development Plans •

• •

incorporate an event or event venue within broader, established projects and long-term ambitions so that investment and growth is more robust, reinforced, and extended along different urban interventions to areas further beyond the site • it should build on existing resources and plans rather than override them • event-related projects are most successful when it assists and accelerates the execution of pre-existing goals use the event venue to provide a foundation to redevelop an area by using it as an incentive to invest in the area aim to ensure that regeneration is achieved if that is the goal, rather than simply expecting the positive impacts to trickle down to the communities when the project is completed

ECONOMIC

Balance Between Fixed Deadlines and Thorough Planning • • • •

design plans to meet local needs, not that of international governing sport bodies avoid preparing projects in frantic haste to prevent inappropriate developments secure long-term users in advance a fixed deadline can help realize urban development projects that are otherwise never completed, partially completed, or fully completed over a long time however it decreases the time available for community consultation and can lead to reduction in quality when work is rushed to deliver venues

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Lack of Use

Strategies SOCIAL

• many stadia have difficulty finding consistent or long-term use, especially those built for a mega-event • sports venues have to fill a year with as many event days as they can attract, but many struggle to do so • many are abandoned or underused within weeks or months after a mega-event ends • many have trouble filling seats or scheduling enough events that require such large seating capacity • sports facilities built without the intention of serving the local population effectively shut themselves out of a potentially large and valuable user group

ECONOMIC

Provide Free/Affordable Uses for General Public • • • •

de-emphasize elite image and have stadium serve as a community resource and hub provide programming for recreation, as well as healthcare, training, and educational services reserve facilities for community use at certain times of the week by offering free permits or lowcost memberships more open days/ community events so people can use them and feel comfortable being around

SOCIAL

Supplement with Cultural/Educational/Commercial Events & Activities • •

•

supplement sports events with other types of events to increase the number of event days complement game days with alternate entertainment options to attract a wider range of possible users • can appeal to non-sports fans to then come along with family or friends who are sports fans augment events with supporting events such as conferences

SOCIAL

ECONOMIC

Create an Event Portfolio • •

• •

construct venues with the plan to stage multiple events in series rather than a one-off event • plan for multiple events throughout the year and over the course of many years stage multiple editions of smaller events rather than one-off mega events • smaller events are more likely to build on the city’s existing resources, benefit locals, and come without the same risks as mega-events • positive impacts may be smaller, but the negative impacts are as well develop multiple events that reflect a city’s own unique characteristics develop an event portfolio supported by these elements: • jewels: annual signature events linked to the area’s identity that distinguishes it • incubator: smaller events with the potential to develop into jewels • bidding: one-off mega-events that have to be acquired through competitive bidding • leverage: use of the event as a platform to promote tourism, trade, and investment

ECONOMIC

Appropriately Fill Gap in Sporting Infrastructure • • • • •

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determine a seating capacity that is appropriate and can be filled for regular event use downscale venues after a mega-event to meet local demand account for the current market interest in attending a sport event and consider adding the ability to expand should the market grow build a temporary structure to serve as a mega-event venue if there is no need for it post-event secure long-term users in advance

Extremes in Foot Traffic

Strategies SOCIAL

• the combination of large events and infrequent use creates extremes in foot traffic where the area around the venue is overwhelmed by large crowds and congestion during event days and then is empty and desolate immediately afterwards or on a typical day • locals feel like they can’t use the public spaces nearby when it is overcrowded, but the spaces serving the venue feel too open and uncomfortable to be in when it is unoccupied

Provide Free/Affordable Uses for General Public • • • •

create programming and spaces that allow for a steady flow of people on a typical day to utilize and occupy the spaces in and around a venue provide programming for recreation, as well as healthcare, training, and educational services reserve facilities for community use at certain times of the week by offering free permits or lowcost memberships more open days/ community events so people can use them and feel comfortable being around

SOCIAL

Create a Gradation of Scale •

choose events of different scales and spatial needs to create a range in foot traffic, traffic patterns, and area disturbed

SOCIAL

Supplement with Cultural/Educational/Commercial Events & Activities • •

•

supplement sports events with other types of events to increase the number of event days complement game days with alternate entertainment options to attract a wider range of possible users • can appeal to non-sports fans to then come along with family or friends who are sports fans augment events with supporting events such as conferences

SOCIAL

Create an Event Portfolio • •

construct venues with the plan to stage multiple events in series rather than a one-off event • plan for multiple events throughout the year and over the course of many years stage multiple editions of smaller events rather than one-off mega events

SOCIAL

Employ Strategies to Foster Celebration and Camaraderie • •

• •

encourage a steadier flow of people onto and out of the site and creating incentives to come early or linger afterwards, as well as to explore other parts of the area choose policies and facilities that foster sociability • create spaces for tailgating or picnicking • litter bins, porta potties or the stadium’s own facilities, picnic benches • food and drink vendors • rules that permit early arrival and late departure provide game-related social events and informal social opportunities like viewing sites so that non-ticket buyers can participate as well plan social activities in the lead-up to the event itself • ex: running events, ballooning events, parades, concerts, pub crawls

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Strategies

Lack of Community Engagement SOCIAL

• urban/event regeneration and development projects are often top-down rather than grassroots initiatives • the involvement of locals in event projects is often tokenistic • the community is merely informed, consulted, or placated often after key decisions have already been made • community engagement becomes a routine exercise meant to meet bureaucratic requirements

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Ensure True Community Involvement in the Planning from the Outset • • • •

have early, active, and consistent collaboration with the community to get their input on plans treat local communities as active partners, not recipients of projects allocate a large amount of funding to allow community groups to participate in the discussion and evaluation have communities actively participate in the planning and implementation of event projects

SOCIAL

Balance Between Fixed Deadlines and Thorough Planning • • • •

design plans to meet local needs, not that of international governing sport bodies avoid preparing projects in frantic haste to prevent inappropriate developments secure long-term users in advance and have obtained local approval a fixed deadline can help realize urban development projects that are otherwise never completed, partially completed, or fully completed over a long time however it decreases the time available for community consultation and can lead to reduction in quality when work is rushed to deliver venues

Strategies

Limited Job Opportunities ECONOMIC

• stadia create only a limited number of skilled positions, which are likely filled with people already in the sport organization or recruited from outside the local area • stadium front office may employ just 70 to 130 people • most of the 1,000-1,500 stadium-related jobs are seasonal, temporary, low-paying, unskilled, and part-time • employers may pull from a job pool that extends beyond the local area • employment levels rise in the lead-up to a mega-event but then fall as soon as the event is over, contributing to the hangover effect

Provide Free/Affordable Uses for General Public •

create more uses for the venue after a mega-event so that it is more likely to support employment • creates a need for a year-round workforce to handle regular users

ECONOMIC

Create an Event Portfolio • •

spread benefits throughout the year have a stable, well-trained workforce that can work events throughout the year • reduce the seasonality of employment • creates a pool of skilled labor that can be an attractive asset when bidding for events, thus improving event attraction and reinforcing job creation • the enhanced hosting capacity allows for a more profitable event portfolio

ECONOMIC

Ensure True Community Involvement in the Planning from the Outset • •

build links with local enterprises, provide jobs, training, and volunteering opportunities to locals while ensuring that revenues earned are invested locally use events to help local businesses and build better relationships with them • establish business clubs or associations in conjunction with events

ECONOMIC

Require Use of Local Labor Pool in Contracts • • •

mandate shared labor pool in city contracts with teams • municipality may have to facilitate creation and maintenance of the event labor pool have cities include clauses requiring teams to give local residents preference in hiring restrict bids and job postings to local markets to encourage local applicants

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Superfluous Venue

Strategies ECONOMIC

• mega-event venues have such trouble finding use after the event because they don’t meet existing local demand • organizers incorrectly presume that building a venue for a sport that has no existing market will catalyze interest and development for that sport • venues are built to meet the specifications of international governing sport bodies rather than what is best for post-event use

Provide Free/Affordable Uses for General Public • • • •

de-emphasize elite image and have stadium serve as a community resource and hub provide programming for recreation, as well as healthcare, training, and educational services reserve facilities for community use at certain times of the week by offering free permits or lowcost memberships more open days/ community events so people can use them and feel comfortable being around

ECONOMIC

Create an Event Portfolio • •

• •

construct venues with the plan to stage multiple events in series rather than a one-off event • plan for multiple events throughout the year and over the course of many years it is better to stage multiple editions of smaller events rather than one-off mega events • smaller events are more likely to build on the city’s existing resources, benefit locals, and come without the same risks as mega-events • positive impacts may be smaller, but the negative impacts are as well develop multiple events that reflect a city’s own unique characteristics develop an event portfolio supported by these elements: • jewels: annual signature events linked to the area’s identity that distinguishes it • incubator: smaller events with the potential to develop into jewels • bidding: one-off mega-events that have to be acquired through competitive bidding • leverage: use of the event as a platform to promote tourism, trade, and investment

ECONOMIC

Appropriately Fill Gap in Sporting Infrastructure • • • • •

determine a seating capacity that is appropriate and can be filled for regular event use downscale venues after a mega-event to meet local demand account for the current market interest in attending a sport event and consider adding the ability to expand should the market grow build a temporary structure to serve as a mega-event venue if there is no need for it post-event secure long-term users in advance

ECONOMIC

Balance Between Fixed Deadlines and Thorough Planning • • •

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design plans to meet local needs, not that of international governing sport bodies avoid preparing projects in frantic haste to prevent inappropriate developments secure long-term users in advance

Strategies

Teams’ Limited Local Revenue ECONOMIC

• 55-60% of team revenues are paid out to players, 40-45% to team owners and additional costs • most of potential revenue from other sources is lost due to leakages: • players and owners’ high income contributes largely to federal taxes and leads to higher savings rates.

• don’t particularly spend money locally • most players and owners don’t live yearround in host city and neither do their families • they’re more likely to travel outside of it and thus spend elsewhere • income from the higher-price difference of food concessions is lost to the facility concessionaire company • team owners often try to address concerns about the lack of benefits to the local communities by using their personal charity or investments in local organizations, but this still means the stadium itself is not directly partaking in improving the quality of life in the surrounding areas

Ensure True Community Involvement in the Planning from the Outset • •

build links with local enterprises, provide jobs, training, and volunteering opportunities to locals while ensuring that revenues earned are invested locally use events to help local businesses and build better relationships with them • establish business clubs or associations in conjunction with events

ECONOMIC

Require Use of Local Labor Pool in Contracts • • •

mandate shared labor pool in city contracts with teams • municipality may have to facilitate creation and maintenance of the event labor pool have cities include clauses requiring teams to give local residents preference in hiring restrict bids and job postings to local markets to encourage local applicants

ECONOMIC

Implement Jock Tax •

implement a jock tax, which allows cities to collect income tax from visiting teams’ employees

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Applying the Strategies to a Site I will now apply a number of these strategies to the site I have chosen for my intervention: Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York — specifically the area to the west of Citi Field located at the northern end of the park. This park has significance for me as I have lived a 10-15 minute train ride from it all my life and have gone to institutions and events located within since my childhood. I have seen the dramatic changes that have taken place over the last decade-and-a-half on both sides of the 7-train line as I commuted between home and Flushing, but only recently began to understand the turn of events and forces at play that led to these developments.

These strategies should be applied in a site-specific way and adapted to the unique character of the surrounding area. For me, the richness of my site comes from the multicultural dynamism and globally-oriented ambitions that have been a constant thread in the history of Flushing Meadows and Queens —one of the most diverse counties in the U.S. — and how that history has been consistently intertwined with large-scale ecological interventions on the site.

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03 Flushing Meadows, Then and Now

Unisphere

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History Valley of Ashes The site that would become Flushing Meadows was originally a salt marshland.

In the 1910s-1920s, it was filled and served as a dump for coal ash and street sweepings.

To the north of the Corona Ash Dump was an industrial zone known as Willets Point or the Iron Triangle that was, until in the recent decade, teeming with junkyards and auto-repair shops.

This area was enshrined in literature as the “Valley of Ashes� in The Great Gatsby.

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The 90-foot tall mound of ash waste called Mount Corona 63

World’s Fairs Robert Moses transformed the Corona Ash Dump into the grounds for the 1939-1940 World’s Fair.

The site I have chosen within the park was specifically turned into a giant parking lot, thus beginning its history of paved surface parking.

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Perisphere and Trylon

Pavilions

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The fairgrounds were converted to parkland and briefly served as the temporary headquarters for the United Nations.

Robert Moses decided to host another World’s Fair in 1964 and 1965 to complete his infrastructure projects and to attempt to recoup losses from the first World’s Fair.

It was during this time that Shea Stadium was constructed on my site.

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View from the observation tower

Philip Johnson’s Tent of Tomorrow

Unisphere at the center of the fairgrounds

Shea Stadium from Passerelle

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Modern ruins After the World’s Fair, the land was returned to the city and restored back to parkland with some pavilions permanently left standing.

The city tried to enact improvements to the park in the years immediately after the Fair, but was unsuccessful. Much like the rest of the city and its other parks, Flushing Meadows experienced decline during the 1970s and 80s and the structures and attractions within the park deteriorated.

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Tennis moves in In 1978, the U.S. Tennis Association moved the U.S. Open to a new center located within the historic fairgrounds.

It has gone through multiple renovations and expansions that have transformed it into a 46.5-acre campus.

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The Olympic bid In the early 2000s, Flushing Meadows was developed as one of the major components of New York City’s bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games—a venue cluster labeled the “Olympic Park.” The bid proposed combining the two man-made lakes to create a regatta center and would be a major ecological remediation project.

Render and site map of Olympic Park proposal

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(left) Proposal to transform the Fountain of the Planets/Pool of Industry into the kayak/canoe slalom venue (right) Back-up proposal for the Olympic Stadium

When plans for a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan fell through at the last minute, bid officials scrambled together an agreement with the Mets baseball team to build them a new stadium, replacing Shea Stadium with a ballpark that would be converted temporarily for Olympic use.

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Post-Olympic bid failure Ultimately, New York lost the bid to London in 2005.

Despite the bid’s failure, Shea Stadium was replaced with Citi Field. Flushing Meadows Natatorium— originally planned as the water polo venue—was also completed thanks to the bid, becoming the city’s first public indoor swimming pool in four decades.

However, the city did not follow through with plans to combine and remediate the two lakes.

FMCP today Because of the artificially smooth lake edges and even lake bottom, there’s a severe lack of biodiversity for such a large area and the ability to filter polluted runoff is extremely hampered. Ragged edges and varying lake depths create different habitats for different species and allow for natural water treatment that is gradual and phased. Because the water flow to and from Flushing Bay is restricted by tidal gates, natural tidal action is all but eliminated, causing waste nutrients to collect. All this has led to numerous algae blooms, fish kills, and the proliferation of invasive species such as Phragmites.

Despite lingering issues, the park remains an important and much-used part of the city, with 7 million annual visitors. It uniquely serves as a neighborhood park, a regional park and cultural site, as well as a large event venue.

(top) Citi Field (bottom) Flushing Meadows Natatorium

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Parking

Bike Paths, Lanes, Routes, Greenways “Forever Wild” Nature Preserve

College/University

Long Island Rail Road

Middle School

Elementary School

Bus

Cultural

Sports Field/Playing Surface

FLUSHING

Q48 bus

Passerelle Pedestrian Bridge

Open Space

7 train

Educational

Flushing Creek

Subway

WILLETS POINT Citi Field

Transit

Q19 bus

NORTH CORONA

Greenscape

Institutional Buildings

Flushing Bay Promenade

Parkland

Candela/Schladermundt Structures

Q66 bus

Recreational

Kayak/Canoe Launch World’s Fair Marina

High School

Flushing Bay

Major Sports Venue

Buildings

EAST ELMHURST

Long Island Rail Road

Louis Armstrong Stadium Arthur Ashe Stadium USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center

Flushing Meadows Natatorium

Grandstand

Al Oerter Recreation Center

Fountain of the Planets/ Pool of Industry Terrace On The Park

Unisphere

Queens Museum

Queens Zoo

Q58 bus

Queens Botanical Garden

CORONA

Fantasy Forest Amusement Park

Queens Theatre

New York State Pavilion Playground For All Children Maloof Skate Park

Kissena Corridor Park

Q88 bus

QUEENSBORO HILL Ederle Terrace Cafe

Cedar Grove Cemetery

Meadow Lake Boathouse

Meadow Lake

Mt Hebron Cemetery

REGO PARK

QM4 bus

Q64 bus

POMONOK

Flushing MeadowsCorona Park Site

EFMR trains

Willow Lake

KEW GARDENS HILLS

Pat Dolan Trail

FOREST HILLS

EF trains

76 Thinking Outside the Bowl Flushing Meadows-

Greenscape

Transit

Institutional Buildings

Parkland

Subway

Educational

Open Space

Bus

Elementary School

Sports Field/Playing Surface

Long Island Rail Road

Middle School High School

Buildings Parking

0 100 200

500

1000

Transit Stop

Chase Center Flushing Meadows Pitch & Putt

New York Hall of Science

EAST ELMHURST

reek

MMUNITY BOARD 7

Buildings

FLUSHING

Parking

This map depicts the demographic breakdown of the neighborhoods adjacent to Flushing Meadows. The two neighborhoods this park primarily serves are Flushing, a predominately Asian enclave to the east of the park, and Corona, a largely Hispanic neighborhood to the west.

It is interesting to note that all of Flushing Meadows is designated open space and outdoor recreation, but a decent portion of that is unusable or not actually green space. These are buildings and parking lots and green lawn cut off by the chains of highways and interchanges.

Flushing Bay

COMMUNITY BOARD 3 WILLETS POINT NORTH CORONA Flushing Creek

COMMUNITY BOARD 7

FLUSHING

Willets Point is the last remnant of the site’s industrial past.

COMMUNITY BOARD 4

Queens Botanical Garden

Institutions

Industrial

Parking

Transportation/Utilities

Vacant Lots

1 & 2 Family Residential

Multi-Family Residential

Mixed Use

Open Space & Outdoor Recreation

Commercial

CORONA

QUEENSBORO HILL

Transit Stop

Bus

Subway

Transit

QUEENSBORO HILL

Long Island Rail Road

Kissena Corridor Park

Meadow Lake

Land use categories

Other

Asian

REGO PARK

Hispanic

African American

Caucasian

Ethnicity

COMMUNITY BOARD 6

POMONOK

POMONOK

COMMUNITY BOARD 8

TY BOARD 8

Willow Lake

KEW GARDENS HILLS

Demographic Map

DENS HILLS

Land Use

FOREST HILLS

Land use categories 0 100 200

500

1000

Land Use

1 & 2 Family Residential

Institutions

Multi-Family Residential

Industrial

Mixed Use

Parking

0 100 200

500

1000

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Land use categories

Land Use

1 & 2 Family Residential

Institutions

Multi-Family Residential

Industrial

Mixed Use

Parking

Open Space & Outdoor Recreation

Transportation/Utilities

Commercial

Vacant Lots

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My thesis places emphasis and accountability on having the stadium create connections to its surrounding communities. So while my intervention will certainly contribute to the park’s role as a regional amenity and large event site, it will just as importantly serve as a local community asset. A key component is establishing a strong, meaningful relationship with the neighborhood of Corona and its subdivision North Corona, located west of the park. It is a working-class, predominately Hispanic neighborhood that uses the park well due to its immediate proximity but in spite of the highway infrastructure that cuts off direct access. I intend for this neighborhood to benefit the most from its adjacency to my specific site within Flushing Meadows and the programming and policies I define.

0

100

200

500

1000

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A Walk Through the Park Because of the sheer size of the park and the distinctiveness within, the park has been organized into multiple sections in different ways. I can see three main sections and several subdivisions that are especially reinforced by the major highways running through the park. Going from south to north, these are: The Lakes This section is comprised of the two man-made lakes, Meadow Lake and Willow Lake, which are further separated by Jewel Avenue. While Meadow Lake is open to recreation and has baseball and cricket fields dotted around its shore. On the other hand, Willow Lake is a protected wildlife reserve and blocked off from public access except for the Pat Dolan Trail.

The Historic World’s Fair Core This area was the former fairgrounds for both World’s Fairs. It contains a mix of cultural institutions, recreational spaces, and lawn. The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is a sprawling sports complex that is the site for the U.S. Open. This section includes a few “appendages”: the West Park which includes the Queens Zoo and Hall of Science, and a “Recreation & Garden Botanical Area” that contains the Queens Botanical Garden and the Al Oerter Recreation Center. These smaller sections are cut off from the main core by major highways and boulevards and only accessible through pedestrian bridges and catwalks.

The Passerelle Pedestrian Bridge connects the elevated 7-train station to David Dinkins Circle, which is considered the formal entrance to the park.

The Marina and Promenade Beyond Citi Field is the World’s Fair Marina and Flushing Bay Promenade, which are, much like the rest of the park, cut off by highways and are only accessible via catwalks and a stretch of highway overpass.

The following section is a survey of the park, from its southernmost accessible point to the northernmost. All of the following photos were from personal documentation.

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Flushing MeadowsCorona Park Site

Greenscape

Transit

Institutional Buildings

Parkland

Subway

Educational

Cultural

Open Space

Bus

Elementary School

Recreational

Sports Field/Playing Surface

Long Island Rail Road

“Forever Wild” Nature Preserve

Bike Paths, Lanes, Routes, Greenways Transit Stop

Middle School High School College/University

Buildings Parking

Major Sports Venue

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Egret on the Pat Dolan Trail

Disheveled part of the Pat Dolan Trail

Despite the lack of biodiversity, avid fishers come for catch-and-release

The park faces issues with invasive species, especially with Phragmites

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Willow Lake 83

Flushing MeadowsCorona Park Site 84 Thinking Outside the Bowl

Greenscape

Transit

Institutional Buildings

Parkland

Subway

Educational

Cultural

Open Space

Bus

Elementary School

Recreational

Sports Field/Playing Surface

Long Island Rail Road

“Forever Wild” Nature Preserve

Bike Paths, Lanes, Routes, Greenways Transit Stop

Middle School High School College/University

Major Sports Venue

Buildings Parking

Meadow Lake boathouse 85

Because of the highway infrastructure, direct access to the park is often through these pedestrian bridges that span lanes of highway 86 Thinking Outside the Bowl

Large family outings are a common sight

Boat and bike rental at Meadow Lake

End of pedestrian bridge leading to edge of Meadow Lake

Maloof Skate Park 87

The New York State Pavilion which includes the observation towers, the Tent of Tomorrow, and the Queens Theatre 88 Thinking Outside the Bowl

Queens Museum 89

Scenes of soccer and picnicking

Nine soccer fields are free for public use through permit reservations

Both regional amateur and youth leagues flock to this park

Even the dried-up World’s Fair fountains are used for pick-up games

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The Unisphere fountains are occasionally turned on, most often during the summer 91

Al Oerter Recreation Center 92 Thinking Outside the Bowl

David Dinkins Circle 93

Flushing MeadowsCorona Park Site 94 Thinking Outside the Bowl

Greenscape

Transit

Institutional Buildings

Parkland

Subway

Educational

Cultural

Open Space

Bus

Elementary School

Recreational

Sports Field/Playing Surface

Long Island Rail Road

“Forever Wild” Nature Preserve

Bike Paths, Lanes, Routes, Greenways Transit Stop

Middle School High School College/University

Major Sports Venue

Buildings Parking

MTA train yard

MTA maintenance facility

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Passerelle Pedestrian Bridge 96 Thinking Outside the Bowl

Historic World’s Fair pier 97

Candela-Schladermundt Structures 98 Thinking Outside the Bowl

Boat docks

Candela/Schladermundt Structures

World’s Fair Marina

Flushing Bay Promenade 99

Wetland restoration project; LaGuardia Airport in the distance 100 Thinking Outside the Bowl

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04 An Alternate Recent Past

Citi Field under construction next to its predecessor, Shea Stadium

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Leveraging the Post-Olympic Bid Failure The premise of my thesis is that my proposed intervention moves forward in the immediate aftermath of New York’s failure to secure the 2012 Summer Olympics in 2005. The reason for this is that the Olympic bid itself, even one that ends in failure, creates extraordinary circumstances that can facilitate and accelerate the completion of large-scale, often stagnated urban projects that couldn’t be execute in normal times. The reason for choosing New York’s failed bid specifically is because its centerpiece, an Olympic Stadium located on Manhattan’s West Side, was meant to catalyze a number of projects to meet gaps in New York’s economy and infrastructure, but the defeat of the West Side Stadium proposal caused a last-minute scramble that shifted plans to Flushing Meadows.

Despite the bid failure, New York pushed ahead on a number of development projects — some of which had languished for decades. The city had explicitly expressed during the bid that they would move forward with them regardless of whether or not they got hosting rights. In the years since, numerous new stadia, residential, commercial and office buildings, and other amenities have been built on proposed Olympic sites. However, aside from the completion of the Natatorium, the city did not proceed with the proposals for Flushing Meadows, including the important remediation of the lakes. The city demonstrated that it was more interested in executing on zoning changes and land development, particularly in Manhattan, that the bid process enabled.

I believe that the extraordinary circumstances the bid allowed for could have been leveraged with more focus on Flushing Meadows, since it replaced the West Side as the site for the Olympic Stadium and was already a major venue cluster prior to the last minute changes. This would have been an opportunity to move forward with a downsized proposal that sought to better serve the communities around Flushing Meadows and to tie together developments and vision projects in and around the park.

Using this scenario as a framework, the city decides to proceed with a reduced plan for a 25,000 seat soccer-specific stadium that will serve as the home for the New York Red Bulls and later the New York City Football Club, as well.

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Basis for a Soccer-Specific Stadium Before the architecture of the stadium can be considered, the initial decisions should include whether or not a stadium is needed or wanted in the first place.

This is in step with the strategies of appropriately filling a gap in the sporting infrastructure and ensuring active, consistent community involvement from the outset.

Since the mid-1990s, a number of teams in the NYC metro area were clamoring for new stadia. The Jets wanted a stadium of their own after their shared agreement with the Giants at Giants Stadium expired. Both the Yankees and Mets had been promised new stadia by then-mayor Rudy Giuliani before his successor, Michael Bloomberg reneged on that deal. The New York Red Bulls, then called the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, also played at Giants Stadium and wanted their own soccer-specific stadium.

Things came to a head around 2004-05 at the height of the Olympic bid. The Jets had been brought in early on to partner with NYC2012, the New York bid committee, on the West Side Stadium proposal. The then-New Jersey Nets were acquired by a developer to move them to an area of Brooklyn slated for development. Their venue would host Olympic gymnastics and basketball.

Lastly and unrelated to the bid, the MetroStars announced in 2004 plans to move into a new stadium.

So at this point in time, there were concurrent needs by different professional sports teams for new stadia, including Major League Soccer. The need for a soccer-specific stadium in particular is further compounded by the addition of another MLS franchise. MLS was considering a second New York franchise as early as 2006. It was officially announced in 2010 and commenced operations in 2013 as the New York City Football Club. NYCFC has played at the woefully inadequate Yankee Stadium since its founding and had, up until recently, been scouring every borough for potential sites.

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left to right: the Jets’ West Side Stadium; arena for the Nets with surrounding development; replacement Olympic Stadium/Mets ballpark proposal

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Component Within Urban Planning Frameworks The role of the stadium should not be that of a singular, unilateral catalyst, but of an integral, integrated component within larger urban planning frameworks and projects. This is so that the stadium taps into plans that are often more in line with community and development needs and think more long-term rather than the stadium driving or even derailing them.

This alternate contextual framework allows for the stadium proposal to be incorporated into proposals that would come before and after it

Existing Plans and Projects Flushing Meadows has been the subject of a number of development plans and capital projects focusing on different parts of the park. I will be looking at those proposed for and since the Olympic bid. These are the: • Olympic Park proposal • construction of Citi Field, the Flushing Meadows Natatorium and the Al Oerter Recreation Center • Flushing Meadows Corona Park Strategic Framework Plan • renovation of the New York State Pavilion • adaptive re-use of the reflecting pools • latest Willets Point development proposal • Flushing Waterways Vision Plan For the purposes of this thesis, I will use my discretion to decided which parts of proposals that were never or have yet to be implemented will be followed through and if some of these ideas can be transferred or replicated on my site.

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Olympic Park The design of the regatta course was primarily informed by the 2002 Ecological Engineering and Restoration Study conducted by the Gaia Institute for NYC2012. It diagnosed long-standing ecological issues with the park’s two lakes that were largely a result of its man-made construction. The study proposed dramatic interventions to address these issues as well as the specifications required for Olympic venues. These included: • combining the two lakes into a single one to meet the racecourse length • dredging the lake bottom to remove the waste nutrients collected on the lake bottom while also meeting the course depth necessary for rowing competitions • recreating streams and creeks by replacing runoff discharge pipes with open wetland holding ponds • reintroducing native wetland species • increasing wetland acreage by constructing wetlands in series — terraced sequence of wetlands and uplands — that would exponentially increase the lake’s natural filtration ability • constructing six new boathouses for competition use with legacy plans to keep them for recreational use by schools and universities • constructing a raised boardwalk to create access to the previously restricted Willow Lake protected area while limiting disturbance to wildlife • constructing a bridge to replace the streets removed to combine the lakes In addition to this was the proposed Olympic slalom facilities that would be built over the Fountain of the Planets/Pool of Industry.

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This part of the Olympic proposal, as was the case with other parts, garnered local opposition. This was because such a dramatic transformation would have shut down the park for months or even years in preparation for the Games, taking away the only source of recreation and green space for a significant population. Therefore, I would not follow through on such a large-scale project and would not move forward with the construction of the regatta course.

I would also not keep plans for the construction of the slalom course because while the lakes are used by dragon boat teams and ordinary boaters on rental pleasure craft alike, I don’t believe there is a market for canoe/kayak slalom.

I would like to see ideas about remediating the lakes realized, with more wetlands, diverse habitats and the construction of public boardwalks in previously inaccessible areas, but without having to combine the two lakes.

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Flushing Meadows Corona Park Strategic Framework Plan This plan, begun in 2004 and released in 2008, found similar ecological problems that the Gaia study did, but also found additional issues with the scale of the park’s circulation. It proposed a set of guiding principles that elaborated a new vision and direction for the park with three main objectives, which were: • re-envisioning the World’s Fair Core, which involved • converting the reflecting pools into a new, greener landscape with more varied topography • turning the Fountain of the Planets into a natural landscape that will serve as a new public gathering space for festivals and concerts.

• reconnecting the Flushing River to the lakes • reconfiguring and restoring the lakes, which involved: • the construction of floating islands and new coastlines using a cut and fill strategy to create more diverse natural habitat areas and for Meadow Lake, more usable parkland • reconnecting the park to the neighborhood and city, which involved: • combining the numerous, redundant pathways into a more concise and streamlined circulation system • improving signage and parking • planning a corridor of activities to locate greater programmatic density along well defined routes

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I support the proposals for remediating the lake, which are in line with the strategies proposed in the Gaia study. The addition of floating islands is a particularly great idea to increase the length of coastline and to establish habitats more protected from people. I am not as keen on other parts of the plan because of how they might disrupt access to the park during construction. While the proposal for reconfiguring the pathways has merit, constructing it, even in phases, could impede everyday activities.

And while the new public gathering space would add so much more valuable green space and help attract more, larger events, I question if all of that area is necessary to be devoted to events and if it is worth removing the existing soccer fields to do so. I do think that a large, natural amphitheatre-like landscape is something I would put in my own intervention. Likewise, I wouldn’t necessarily follow through on the proposals for expanding the Flushing River (because it cuts off the Natatorium from the rest of the park) or converting the reflecting pools into additional landscape that is more topographic (because there is another project that supersedes it and is currently slated for construction), but theses are ideas I would incorporate into my intervention.

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Olympic Park (built venues) As previously mentioned, the Olympic Park included a proposed water polo venue and later on, a replacement Olympic Stadium that were both completed despite the bid’s failure. Citi Field, which opened in March 2009, is a downsized version of the proposal without the temporary seating that would have been needed to convert it for Olympic use. The Natatorium, whose construction had been stalled because of funding issues, was completed in February 2008 with an Olympic-size pool for swimming and diving and an NHL-regulation ice rink.

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Al Oerter Recreation Center This community recreation center, named after the local Olympic champion, was completed in 2009. It is a 20,000-sq ft public facility with fitness, dance and cardio rooms, a gymnasium with an indoor basketball court and track, indoor handball courts, racquetball, table tennis, as well as a media lab. Probably in large part to its affordability, it has reached max capacity with 15,000 recreation centeronly members and 45,000 full members between the Natatorium and recreation center, which has created long wait times in the past.

Creating additional indoor recreational space for the community is something that I definitely want to do in my intervention as a way to relieve pressure off of a popular, well-used facility. It is also programming that is stadium-related and that a stadium is well-suited to support.

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New York State Pavilion Restoration and Fountain of the Fairs Reconstruction These are two NYC Parks Capital Projects currently under construction to restore and re-adapt remnants from the World’s Fairs.

The Tent of Tomorrow had been previously repainted to its previous American cheese yellow color by professional bridge painters to complete apprenticeship requirements. There are also ongoing efforts to restore its terrazzo flooring. This project continues the restoration efforts with renovations to better preserve the structures, including waterproofing, stair replacement, electrical upgrades and structural conservation work, as well as the addition of dynamic architectural lighting. This extensive effort broke ground in November 2019.

The Fountain of the Fairs proposal, under construction since September 2019, actually comes from the same firm that contributed to the Strategic Framework Plan, so this redesign of the fountains supersedes the previous proposal to convert them into green space. This new design reflects the fountains’ past and the Unisphere’s current use by converting them into a series of water-related spaces, with a fog garden, a sunken theater performance space with tiered seating, an interactive children’s water park, and an improved plaza in front of the Fountain of the Planets that will accommodate food trucks, with new paving that reflects the Art Deco style from the 1939 World’s Fairs, vegetation and seating.

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Willets Point Task Force redevelopment proposal Willets Point has been the subject of a number of redevelopment proposals that have all failed, starting with Robert Moses’ defeated plan to incorporate it into the park. It is unclear how the latest proposal, which came out in January 2019, will fare, but a deal was struck in February 2018 to break ground on a development plan for 1,100 units of affordable housing on six acres. Two plans recommended by the Willets Point Task Force to the NYC Economic Development Corporation fills out the remaining 17 acres of Phase 1 and imagines what a full build-out would look like. The two plans are: • Illustrative Scenario 1: • a high-density, mixed-use district that is primarily residential with 5,500 units including the 1,100 affordable, space for public facilities, local and neighborhood retail, programmed open space, and parking • Illustrative Scenario 2: • a hub for a new 11,000-25,000-seat soccer stadium (potentially for a new Minor League team) with space for public facilities, programmed open space, and the remainder of the site devoted to residential • there is still local and neighborhood retail but also larger mid-sized retail options surrounding the stadium that focus on restaurants, retail and entertainment Most notably, the full build-out also suggests the addition of a convention center.

Since I am already proposing a soccer stadium on the other side of Citi Field, the second scenario is rendered moot and I would rather implement the first scenario anyway to focus on more affordable housing. While I am unsure of my support for this proposal because of the conflicts with between the city and the business owners there, I see development there as inevitable and that it presents an opportunity to create more connections with my proposal.

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Flushing Waterways Vision Plan This 2018 vision plan is an extensive reimagining of Flushing Bay that seeks to activate an area that suffers from many of the same issues as the rest of the park and is severely disconnected from the rest of the park it belongs to. It divides the bodies of water into four “reaches” and suggests a list of proposals with varying degrees of intervention and importance. These reaches are the: • LaGuardia Waterfront Reach • habitat restoration, marsh expansion, oyster reef creation • waterway education through signage and a wetland nature trail • creating an ecosystem on the breakwall and splitting it to create an inlet that will enhance tidal exchange • improvements to the Grand Central Parkway pedestrian bridge • College Point Reach: • water trails with expanded canoe, kayak, and outrigger access • conversion of silos, walls, and bulkheads into murals, sculptures and large-scale art installations that will turn the industrial waterfront into an environmental engagement opportunity • salt marsh preservation and public boating beach, new wetlands, upland maritime forests, and berms • Bay Promenade Reach: • open spaces for movie screenings, food festivals, and farmers’ markets • revitalized Pier 1 with a restored ferry stop and sunset sail, dining, and entertainment opportunities • improvements to the highway underpass to increase access and visibility • new playgrounds, fountains, picnic tables, sculptures, and shade trees • restoration and repurposing of the Schladermundt/Candela Structures • world-class dragon boat race course • new Gateway Park center with new and improved boat launches, cafe, and observation tower • reshaped shorelines, fishing access, and a more resilient waterfront • a Queens Water Exploration Center for education and research • a rebuilt Pier 2 that will serve as the launch point for dragon boaters • a sound barrier along the highways • Flushing Creek Reach: • improved and restored wetlands including stormwater treatment wetlands and maritime forest • community parks, nature trails, and redesigned waterfront edge 120 Thinking Outside the Bowl

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The Gap All these proposals and ongoing and completed projects can certainly come together to create a series of interventions throughout the park over the course of a few decades that would significantly improve it. The Willets Point and Flushing Waterways proposals are particularly interesting because of their close proximity to each other, Citi Field, and my site. However, I see a physical gap created by the Citi Field parking lot that hampers the ability for these proposals to work together in a positive way and to be connected to the rest of the park and those improvements. I believe the addition of a soccer stadium and reprogramming the remainder of the site can serve as another component that helps tie everything together so that the whole is greater than the some of its parts.

Program Based on these proposals, community needs, and strategies for integration, the proposed programmatic brief for the site will be: • a 25,000-seat soccer-specific stadium for the New York Red Bulls and New York City Football Club that will be available for community use during non-game and non-event preparation days • the team and visiting team facilities will be located on one side while a club house and other amenities for local amateur and youth leagues will be provided on the other • a pedestrian bridge spanning the Grand Central Parkway that creates a direct physical link from Corona to the site • a recreational field house that will contain exercise facilities, indoor and rooftop soccer fields, dance and fitness class rooms, and a media lab • a community track with a field for soccer and athletics that can serve as a venue for local sports competitions and graduation ceremonies • a playground for community and regional use with equipment for children of all ages and courts for basketball, badminton, and American handball • multi-purpose plaza(s) for everyday and event use • open lawn that can be for leisure or event use • a riparian zone and bioswales to absorb, hold, and treat runoff

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Green Space Strategy Stadium

Built Rec Space

Lower

Center

Upper

Lower

Over parking

Iterations on different configurations of the stadium and the open space

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Unprogrammed Open Space

Iteration beginning to incorporate the existing grid

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Iterations with attached field house

Iterations exploring relationship between stadium, plinth, massing of the field house, and open space

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Final formal logic of the site

1. Site expansion after relocating surface parking and removing roads serving it

2. Generative geometry based on existing urban layout

3. Major axes from waterfront to park entrance and Corona to the site

4. New stadium frames path to waterfront and tilts toward the community

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5. New stadium, rec center, and Citi Field frame plaza spaces

6. Zones of built recreation, recreational green space, and ecological green space

7. Corners open up to take in spectators and direct them to waterfront

8. A face towards the community and a face towards the public

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Restored Pier 2 Queens Water Exploration Center

Precedent-Pedestrian Bridge: Pasarela Atirantada La Coruna, Spain

Precedent-Riparian Zone: Yanweizhou Park Jinhua, China

Restored & Repu Schladermundt S

P.S. 143 Louis Armstrong

Precedent-Plaza: Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia

Constructed Riparian Zone

Hilton Park Pedestrian Bridge

Amphitheatre Lawn

Neighborhood Playground Precedent-Playground: A’Beckett Urban Square Melbourne, Australia

Community Track

Queens Communi Stadium Recreational Field House Public Plaza

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Lookout Tower & Gateway Cafe Ferry Stop Boat Launches

urposed Structures

Precedent-Park: Woolwich Squares London, UK

Precedent-Plaza: Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia

Convention Center

Park Precedent-Plaza: Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia

Park Public Plaza

s ity m

School Citi Field

Key: My proposed intervention

Precedent-Plaza: Gronnegade Square, Odense, Denmark

Existing proposal Existing building 135

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Dealing with Scale One of the biggest issues with stadia is their scale — both the size of their footprint and their imposing height — because it disrupts existing street grids and makes it dramatically out of place with its context. Several strategies are employed in my proposal to help mitigate this.

Placing the soccer stadium next to the larger and taller Citi Field begins a gradation of scale both in footprint and in height that continues west with the field house, sized similarly to a residential block, to the existing school until the residential buildings. While the Willets Point development is directly across the street from Citi Field, the proposed massing is as tall or even taller than Citi Field and more dense. The open space and the separation created by the Grand Central Parkway also help to absorb some of the scale because the stadium is looming directly over the residential area.

Because of the ground conditions, sinking the lower tier into the ground was not an option.

Instead, using a plinth to create a raised ground level helps create the illusion that the height has been cut and directly connects the circulation area around the stadium to the 7-train station and the pedestrian bridge. Terraces further break up the monumentality and monolithic nature of stadia while opening up the facade to face the community while creating views for them to the inside.

A

A

D

C

B

D E

E

F

F

C B

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Event Portfolio It is very difficult to find the right balance for the use of the stadium between the sharp contrasts of large-scale, disruptive events and desolate, uninviting open spaces.

Creating an event portfolio or event calendar can help better plan the annual and long-term use of the stadium and create a consistent variety of events with different scales and frequency to modulate the extremes in foot traffic.

That Flushing Meadows is home to quite a number of annual events and regular sports seasons presents an opportunity but is also an example of these issues. Aside from the sports events that typically take place, there are also cultural events that are scattered in different parts of the park but can be consolidated on one devoted event site. The following is a survey of the typical use of the park, the events that occur, and how these events can coexist with the new soccer stadium.

Regular Day The historic World’s Fair Core is easily the most frequented part of the park. At the peak of summer, you can find just about every patch of grass being used for picnics, barbecues, and pick-up games. When the Unisphere’s fountains are turned on, it becomes a magnet for children and families.

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Citi Field Baseball is the most frequent event on the site, with 81 games a year. It can also be quite disruptive. Many people come from other boroughs or out of town by car and always create congestion before and after a game. A large share of attendees take the 7-train as well, which compensates by running more trains, and the Long Island Rail Road, which only operates the stop here for baseball and the U.S. Open. Citi Field can also expect to have 5-6 concerts a year as well as a number of events for charities and non-profit organizations.

Because Citi Field is located north of the main part of the park, it doesn’t have too large of an impact on the park itself.

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USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center Typically, the Tennis Center campus is off-limits except to paying customers renting the tennis courts. It then closes itself off completely to the public to prepare for the U.S. Open for a few weeks prior to the start.

The U.S. Open, by nature of being one of the tennis Grand Slam tournaments, is the biggest event to occur annually in Flushing Meadows and makes it the most disruptive. The National Tennis Center saw record attendance in 2019 — drawing nearly 740,000 fans over two weeks of matches and a Day 1 record of 68,000 people.

Because the Tennis Center is directly adjacent to the entrance to the park, security is set as far up as the canopies over the LIRR station, thus shifting regular park goers to the side as they enter the park. For the past few years, cultural institutions within the park such as the Queens Museum have had to close during the Open because of disruptions created by the strict security.

Lawn typically dotted with people are lined with concrete Jersey barriers and turned into parking.

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Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in New York has been around for thirty years and is one of the largest of its kind in the U.S., with over 150 dragon boat teams participating. The annual event occurs on the first weekend of August and attracts approximately 4,000 people over those two days who come to watch the races, get free giveaways from sponsors, and enjoy the food and entertainment.

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Queens Night Market The Queens Night Market is a multicultural night market mostly for food, but also includes arts and crafts and live entertainment.

This was started in 2015 by a Taiwanese businessman who wanted to recreate the night markets in Taiwan but didn’t want to restrict it to just Taiwanese or Asian cuisine. It takes place every Saturday night from mid-April to the end of October, except for a break because of the U.S. Open, one the parking lot of the Hall of Science. It features 70-80 vendors selling food with a price cap of $5 ($6 for certain exceptions) and attracts about 10,000 people each night.

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Hello Panda Festival The winter of 2019-2020 was the first iteration of the largest lantern festival in North America. This covered 700,000 square feet of the Citi Field parking lot and featured illuminated animal, holiday, sports, and fairytale-themed displays as well as a maze and playground.

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Vendor Western Caribbean/African American Hispanic Asian Games/Performances

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Park Circulation: Regular Day Peak

Person/cluster of people Regular visitor circulation Event-goer circulation

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Park Circulation: Hello Regular Panda Day Peak Festival

Person/cluster of peo Regular visitor circula Event-goer circulatio

Cumulative Event Calendar* Regular Day on the Site Because green space is so hard to find in a place like New York, it can be expected that any additional acreage of usable park space will be filled. The intent is to have the open space around the stadium be well-used and bring people in close proximity to the stadium’s spaces. Locals and amateur and youth leagues can reserve the stadium field using the same permit system and use the regional league clubhouse. This gives the stadium a meaningful connection to the neighborhood rather than one that is symbolic and tokenistic.

The boardwalk extends the path created by the Passerelle to the Flushing Bay waterfront, reestablishing that connection dating back to the first World’s Fair. This will encourage people to explore and activate the spaces and buildings proposed in the Flushing Waterways Vision Plan. The pedestrian bridge spanning the Grand Central is meant to be a direct, dramatic contrast to the tenuous, precarious catwalks that currently connect locals to the park.

There is a period from October to March that is largely devoid of events. This actually presents an opportunity for the stadium and its adjacent facilities to serve primarily as a local community amenity during a period of the year with less desirable weather and that also coincides with a large portion of the school-year.

daytime event

40,000 30,000

*figures from 2019 seasons/editions figures from the Hello Panda Festival have not been released as of publication

20,000 10,000

spectatorship 10,000 20,000 30,000

evening event

40,000

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Park Circulation: Soccer

Person/cluster of people Regular visitor circulation Event-goer circulation

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Park Circulation: Hello Regular Panda Day Peak Festival

Person/cluster of peo Regular visitor circula Event-goer circulatio

Soccer on the Site Because of the current, albeit growing popularity of soccer, MLS games create a relatively moderate level of foot traffic, especially when compared to the other events on the site.

Major League Soccer season

The New York Red Bulls and the New York City Football Club can reliably attract 18,000 to 22,000 attendees. By having the two teams share a stadium, the number of soccer matches played in a typical doubles to 34.

The intent with the design of the spaces is to mitigate the potential negative effects an MLS match could have on access to the site while creating opportunities for locals and non-eventgoers to partake in the experience. The natural amphitheatre created by the open lawn directly north of the stadium can be used as a viewing site. The plazas, boardwalk, and open lawn can be used for tailgating.

Meanwhile, these spaces and the surrounding facilities can still be used by the public.

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Park Circulation: Baseball

Person/cluster of people Regular visitor circulation Event-goer circulation

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Park Circulation: Hello Regular Panda Day Peak Festival

Person/cluster of peo Regular visitor circula Event-goer circulatio

Major League Baseball season Baseball on the Site By relocating the parking to directly south of the train line, most of the flow into Citi Field can be expected to come from the south, either through the train platform, the mezzanine level, or street level. While the plaza outside Citi Field’s rotunda may be crowded and hard to get through, the plinth bifurcates to separate event and non-event-goers. Once again, the sunken lawn north of the soccer stadium can be used as a viewing site.

However, the relationship between the two stadia can become problematic when games overlap, which can happen on occasion, especially if a game has to be rescheduled due to weather.

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Park Circulation: U.S. Open

Person/cluster of people Regular visitor circulation Event-goer circulation

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Park Circulation: Hello Regular Panda Day Peak Festival

Person/cluster of peo Regular visitor circula Event-goer circulatio

U.S. Tennis Open U.S. Open on the Site Since the soccer stadium shouldn’t be directly impacted by the U.S. Open, its facilities and open spaces would still be available when the rest of the park shuts down. The stadium and its surrounding site then becomes such a valuable community resource during this time.

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Park Circulation: Dragon Boat Festival

Person/cluster of people Regular visitor circulation Event-goer circulation

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Vendor Western Caribbean/African American Hispanic Asian Games/Performances

Park Circulation: Hello Regular Panda Day Peak Festival

Person/cluster of peo Regular visitor circula Event-goer circulatio

Dragon Boat Festival Dragon Boat Festival on the Site A component of the Flushing Waterways Vision Plan is a new dragon boat race course to the right of the Marina with viewing and festival grounds just off on the water’s edge on an existing parking lot. The restored Pier 2 would serve as a launch point for the teams.

To help facilitate this, I propose that the public plaza between the soccer stadium and Citi Field be used as the festival grounds instead, with the viewing grounds and team/sponsor tents staying along the edge of Flushing Bay. This is to create more room for the festival and to generate more visibility.

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Park Circulation: Queens Night Market

Person/cluster of people Regular visitor circulation Event-goer circulation

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Vendor Western Caribbean/African American Hispanic Asian Games/Performances

Park Circulation: Hello Regular Panda Day Peak Festival

Person/cluster of peo Regular visitor circula Event-goer circulatio

Queens Night Market Queens Night Market on the Site As with the Dragon Boat Festival, the Queens Night Market can be sited on the plaza as well as on the plinth level. Vendors and the public can use the stadium’s facilities and concession areas rather than having to use porta potties and temporary seating.

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Park Circulation: Hello Panda Festival

Person/cluster of people Regular visitor circulation Event-goer circulation

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Hello Panda Festival* Hello Panda Festival on the Site The addition of a stadium and recreational facilities does break up a large, cohesive open space for the displays, but it could present an opportunity to lay out a more decentralized festival grounds that encourages people to explore this part of the park. The stadium’s field can serve as a major exhibit space while its concession booth can be used as the ticket and administrative offices.

*figures from the Hello Panda Festival have not been released as of publication

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World’s Fare and Cirque du Soleil Additional Events Other cultural events take place in Flushing Meadows as well, including World’s Fare, a food festival located on the Citi Field parking lot that attracts 20,000 people over a weekend in May, and Cirque du Soleil regularly performs shows at varying parts of the year on either the Citi Field or MTA maintenance facility parking lots.

2019’s show, Luzia, took place throughout May and June. These events can work in a number of areas within the proposed site.

Since my stadium proposal would supersede Red Bull Arena, all the more global events that took place there would occur here. This includes rugby and lacrosse matches, and the 2017 Danone Nations Cup — a soccer tournament for children ages 10-12. The stadium would also be the right size to host both U-17 and U-19 World Cups, as well as some FIFA Women’s World Cup matches. This then creates an event portfolio that creates a set of events over a year and over the course of multiple years.

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One-time international events

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Regular day

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Major League Soccer game

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Dragon Boat Festival

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Queens Night Market

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Hello Panda Festival

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Thinking About the Outside of the Bowl Much of the work on the thesis was spent exploring the large-scale, urbanistic moves on the site and making sure that they reinforced the main point of the thesis, which was to have the stadium first and foremost actually serve the community it’s placed next to as a local amenity and not as an exclusive, elite sports facility. There was also a focus on developing its role as a regional event venue and a component to facilitate existing urban planning proposals.

However, the actual architecture of the stadium was not explored enough.

There are lingering questions about how the ideas espoused in the thesis can manifest themselves architecturally and materially.

The final drawing set began to suggest such a language based on personal impressions and the actual intent of past stadium projects, as well as the site history, but it warrants further exploration. I was influenced by the ideas espoused by the Munich Olympic Park and Frei Otto’s tensile canopies that expressed ideas of cheerfulness, transparency, democracy, and openness.

I also looked at the existing park buildings for inspiration and saw tensile aspects there as well. For example, the Natatorium’s cable-stayed towers were themselves inspired by the World’s Fair pavilions, which led me to be inspired by the same language. It is all the more fitting because the pavilions that were more tent-like evoked the tents that are set up for the cultural events that take place on the site like the food markets, dragon boat festival, and the circus tents. This further reinforces the idea that there may not be an architectural language that can be repeated anywhere and that as with the other strategies, it should be adjusted to be site-specific.

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Candidature File for the Games of the XXX Olympiad : 15 November 2004 / Comité De Candidature New York City 2012.”

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