Non-retro: Rangers new home next-gen park with classic touch

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — There is a series of high brick arches along an outfield concourse reminiscent of their old stadium and asymmetrical outfield walls in the new home of the Texas Rangers. Still, Globe Life Field is no retro ballpark.

When fans are finally able to go there for games, they just have to look above, and look around, to see that — after walking through the big shaded porch-like entrances to get inside.

Those 223 transparent panels in the retractable roof and the walls of windows allow in plenty of natural light. The split seating levels, both in the lower and upper decks, offer full views of the field from wide concourses.

“Our stated goal from the very beginning was to do the first next-generation ballpark,” said Bryan Trubey, the executive vice president for HKS who oversees the sports practice for the Dallas-headquartered architecture company that designed the $1.2 billion facility. “We did not want to do a retro ballpark. That’s been done, with some incremental changes over time.”

Old ballparks don’t have massive videoboards towering high over right field, like the one in Globe Life Park that is about 40 feet inside the field of play and surely a potential target for a long Joey Gallo home run, though his first one didn't hit it.

“It's a very beautiful ballpark," Gallo said before becoming the first player to homer in the new place when he pulled a deep drive down the right-field line. “I assumed it would be a pitcher's park. ... You can tell center field and the gaps are going to play really, really deep."

Then there are those field-level luxury suites and clubs, behind home plate and then extending down both lines past the dugouts.

Those suites are similar to the field-level seating at neighboring HKS-designed AT&T...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Non-retro-Rangers-new-home-next-gen-park-with-15438284.php