[theman]

Architect proposes turning LR stadium into mixed-use space

BY ANDREW DEMILLO ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Little Rock leaders should consider preserving a portion of Ray Winder Field and replacing part of the 73-year-old minor league ballpark with a glassencased development, a Little Rock architect told an advisory group Friday.
Reese Rowland, who designed Heifer International’s headquarters now under construction in Little Rock, told a task force looking at the future of Ray Winder Field and the War Memorial Park area that the field could be preserved for high school and college games while a portion of the grandstand could be converted into an enclosed space.
Rowland addressed the group in its first meeting since the passage of a North Little Rock sales tax ensured that the minor league Arkansas Travelers will leave their home in Little Rock’s midtown by 2007.
"There’s more options we have than just baseball," said Rowland, a member of the task force. "You don’t have to bulldoze it just because there’s not a baseball team there anymore."
Rowland showed his sketches of a renovated ballpark to the group 10 days after North Little Rock voters approved a two-year sales tax increase to build a $28 million stadium for the Travelers. The sales tax increase, expected to generate $32 million to $33 million in revenue, will take effect Oct. 1.
The task force, headed by City Director Stacy Hurst, was formed in January and already has heard proposals including allowing the Little Rock Zoo to build an elephant exhibit on the 10-acre Ray Winder property.
Now that the Travelers’ move has been decided, Hurst said a flood of suggestions has come into City Hall, ranging from replacing the stadium with an aquarium to turning it into a soccer complex.
"There’s a lot of interest in what we’re going to do with this field," Hurst said. "It’s a Little Rock landmark. It’s a part of our history, and we want to make sure we do the right thing with this."
The task force reviewed the proposals they’ve already heard for the field and the surrounding 200-acre War Memorial Park area, but Hurst said she wants more detailed proposals for use of the steel-and-concrete facility when the Travelers move. Hurst said she hopes to present proposals to city leaders in the next six months.
Rowland said the field part of the stadium could be preserved and about 2,500 of the seats in the 6,000-seat facility could be used in a renovation project. The remaining seats could be replaced with an indoor structure with uses ranging from office space to a community center.
That renovation, Rowland said, could convert part of the stadium into a two-floor, 30,000-square-foot glass facility.
The renovation would help save Ray Winder, the seventholdest minor league stadium still in operation in the United States, while still developing a new attraction for the area, said Rowland, who suggested the development could be partnered with the neighboring zoo or War Memorial Fitness Center.
"My heart says we ought to save this field and save this stadium," he said. "We could make this into one of the neatest buildings in town."
The task force also is considering hiring a private consultant to help the group come up with proposals for replacing or reusing Ray Winder Field and overhauling the park area.
City Manager Bruce Moore said the city will write a request for qualifications for private consultants that the task force can discuss at its next meeting.
Moore said the city also is interested in asking the state, which owns the majority of the land on which Ray Winder sits, to convey the property to Little Rock.
"We may have some great ideas, but we only own a portion of that land," he said.