Rose Bowl Stadium Renovation
San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group
HAVING the Rose Bowl finally off the overly fast track of being a potential - and long shot - home to an NFL team is a great blessing to its home city and to the region.
Over the years of speculation and through the unnecessary ginned-up election in which almost three-quarters of Pasadena voters gave the thumbs down to professional football in the Arroyo Seco, it all felt like one extended "we have to destroy the stadium in order to save it" moment.
In the wake of the overkill, sober minds are exploring the proper ways for one of America's great sports venues to go forward into what we believe can be a long - possibly even centuries-long, because why not? - middle age.
In recent weeks, the same architects who had been engaged to create the schematic designs of the half-billion-dollar National Football League version of the bowl have come back with a refreshingly practical and civic-minded version 2.0.
The work of HOK Sport and its many collaborators is still all entirely conceptual. But the concept this time, instead of an attempt to woo the billionaire boys club, is to let the Rose Bowl become what it should be: a magnificent college football venue that does a better job of paying its own way and playing host to other appropriate uses as well.
Design-wise, the great leap forward about the new preliminary drawings is the way they entirely de-clutter the flotsam and jetsam of service buildings that have long obscured the original stadium design.
Restrooms and concession stands have been built over the years into the banked-up earth on which the stadium is built.
The visual clutter is astounding; all the detritus also has long obscured the Arroyo Seco stones set into the banks that were part of Myron Hunt's original design.
By moving all the outbuildings away from the stadium to the edge of a new, much wider perimeter fence around the Rose Bowl, an expanded concourse is created as well. New landscaping with much more greenery is planned. A jogging and walking trail would surround the outside of the new perimeter.
Exciting new uses that will open the stadium on the many days when there are no games is one of the best ideas for the Rose Bowl. A museum focusing on its history. A restaurant. Parties and weddings on the field and in the stands. This is the kind of thinking that will truly bring the venue into the region's day-to-day culture.
New press box? New luxury suites? Ramps to the top seats to lessen crowding in the infamously narrow tunnels? Now we're talking the big bucks. A renovation on those lines could run to $250 million and up. Full funding straight from the taxpayers is a non-starter. Yes, tenants such as UCLA and the Tournament of Roses will pony up some money for such improvements. But they have limited resources.
The cost will be the challenge in creating a Rose Bowl of the future that respects its hallowed past. But we've met such challenges before. The Rose Bowl Operating Company and the many groups with which it is engaged are to be congratulated for creating this newly creative playbook from which to form a game plan that works for all who love - and who will love - the stadium.