Quote:
Originally Posted by trueviking
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Thanks for that...I forgot about HOK's involvement.
Looking back at that early proposal, it's interesting to see how the stadium design evolved. The arches that were built are probably less iconic than the ones in the initial proposal, but the latter probably would have cast all sorts of weird shadows and would have probably been quite a bit more expensive so I can appreciate why they were changed.
Also, the early designs called for a single-tier stadium. Considering the relatively small size of the place a single tier could have worked, but switching to a two-tier configuration certainly brings the skyboxes and the upper seats closer to the action.
Interestingly, the first real bit of criticism regarding stadium design has surfaced: the Sun's Paul Friesen slammed the small and (according to him) poorly located press box.
It did strike me as a bit odd that the press box was shunted off to the side the way it was... I would have expected two levels of boxes which would have created more room for a bigger press box at centre field on one of the levels. It will be interesting to see if this causes any problems for the Bombers with future Grey Cup bids. The press box situation at MTS Centre had a relatively easy fix, but there doesn't seem to be such an obvious solution for the stadium if they ever want to enlarge the press box.
Friesen's column:
http://www.winnipegsun.com/2013/05/3...t-grey-cup-bid