Architect Provides a Nats'-Eye View
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
As senior project designer for Nationals Park, Jim Chibnall is one of the architects who imagined and designed Washington's new, 41,000-seat baseball stadium. He made sure that the ballpark, which opens this month, was built just right.
Chibnall, 47, grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, rooting for the Cardinals. So it was "a dream come true," he says, also to have been senior project designer for that team's new Busch Stadium, which opened in 2006.
I talked with Chibnall about how he got to be a designer of baseball parks.
What did you like to do as a kid?
"I grew up in a big family [six brothers, two sisters], so we played outside a lot. We would go exploring and fishing in the city parks. We were always building things like forts from things that we found in the dumpster. I also liked playing sports. I played baseball in high school."
Did you like to draw?
"I loved it. I would make pencil drawings of tanks, airplanes, cars -- anything that moved. I think drawing helped me in school because it opened up my creativity."
Did you go to baseball games when you were young?
"Yes. My brothers and I would get on a bus called the Redbird Express and go to the old Busch Stadium and watch the Cardinals play. I remember being very impressed with the canopy on the top of the stadium. It had beautiful arches that looked like the famous Gateway Arch in St. Louis."
