When Stadiums Replaced Ballparks

When I was a kid, I loved watching games at Tiger Stadium, Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. I couldn't understand why they were so much more interesting than all the other stadiums of the day. So, I started finding pictures of old ballparks (as opposed to stadiums) and I kept thinking, "Where did we go wrong?" Every one of these stadiums had issues when there destroyed. They were too small, too out-of-step with the times, sometimes too run-down. So, the solution in the sixties and seventies was demolition. Blow those ball parks up and re-imagine the space as something more multi-functional, technological and relevant with the times. People were clamoring for change. They wanted stadiums that were modern enough to reflect the Space Age. Something that was rounded and novel and different from the old clunky, asymmetrical ball parks of the past. The results? Donut stadiums that all looked the same in their search for being modern, slick and multifunctional. Oh, they had Jumbo Trons and Astro Turf and they could be used for concerts and football and everything else a city needed. Even the true ballparks like Candlestick (formed in the last era of ballparks, around the time of Dodger Stadium) began to transform into multipurpose stadiums. They weren't ballparks. Then, at some point, people woke up and realized that there was beauty in the vintage. Suddenly, we had places like Camden Yards and AT&T Ballpark that were true ballparks. They had personality. They were deliberately parochial, representing the local community in form and function. But more than anything, they were built, not to be innovative spaces, but to be ballparks. They were all of a sudden intentional again. I think education reformers on both the corporate side and the progressive education community could learn a thing or two from the failures of the donut stadium era.