WIP: Carolina Field - Charlotte, N.C.

[AstroEric]

Okay...so I'm the first to post here, I guess. I've been working on a concept based on a current proposition before Charlotte City Council to build a baseball stadium in second ward, beside Panthers Stadium. This stadium would be the new home of the Charlotte Knights, bringing them back from Fort Mill, S.C. The stadium would also, one hopes, be adjustable for a potential major league team. The real field would probably wind up being called Charlotte Field, but I'm making mine Carolina Field so as to be more inclusive (in case we do get that MLB team).

Keep in mind this is all still a work-in-progress.

The park would be located here, on the block created by 2nd, Mint, 4th and Graham Streets:

Here's a picture of the proposed park from Charlotte Center City, who were the ones who pushed for and won the NASCAR Hall of Fame. There is more information available on their website.

Mine's going to be quite different, and I imagine their finished product will be too. I don't know why there's a rocketship in theirs.

For my part, I'm going to include the following design elements: (1) a relocation of the baseball museum from Wilson, N.C., to Charlotte, where it will serve as a sort of "Green Monster" in left field; (2) a transparent right field wall, and beyond it, a grove of dogwood (the state flower) trees and small city park that are external to the field, i.e. folks can watch the game through the wall for free; (3) a downward sloping roof and seating section that starts high on the leftfield side and ends low over the rightfield corner, (4) a large doughnut above the "batter's eye" in centerfield that evokes the bull from the the movie (and now the stadium) featuring the Durham Bulls, sponsored by Krispy Kreme with the promise that if a ball goes through the center of the doughnut, everyone in the stands wins a coupon for a free dozen.

In the case of an MLB team coming to Charlotte, the batter's eye, the doughnut, the grove and the outfield bullpens could all be relocated to create space for outfield seating.

Here's a diagram of the field so far:

The baseball museum would feature seating on the roof, behind which would be the scoreboard and the sign that bears the name of the field. The roof would be accessible from the left field bleachers and via an elevator from the museum.

Here's a not-to-scale diagram, to give an idea of what I have in mind for the roof:

The museum would also feature, on it's second floor, a viewing window so that patrons visiting the halls can look out onto the field. The exterior of the museum would be brick, though a padded wall would run along the bottom, and would feature painted art of famous players born in North Carolina. In the example I've worked up, those players are Catfish Hunter, Luke Appling and Enos Slaughter, left to right:

The doughnut sign would look something like this, with a lot more work done to it:

The stadium would open out into a view of downtown Charlotte.

Okay. So in the feedback, I need to know the following things:

1. What are the rules for making the side view of the seats, etc.?

2. Do you think I should theme the stadium? I.e. since they're they Knights, make it castle-like, and drop the fresco on the outside of the museum?

3. Are the bullpens functional? I wanted them sort-of modeled on those at PNC Park, but I've never been there. The idea was that there would me other viewing windows from the museum overlooking the pens.

And also anything else you want to know. Thanks for reading!

--Eric

[Sean O]

Awesome man! That looks great, can't wait to see more.

1). No real rules, just give as much information as you think you need to get the point across. Do you want the upper deck to extend over the lower deck for better sightlines, meaning there might be posts? Is there a club or luxury box setting beneath it? Take a look at http://www.andrewclem.com/Baseball/index.shtml for an idea of a simple cross-section, where he just color-codes the different seating, and shows the degree of incline.

2). Theming could be cool, and lend something unique to the park. I'd give it a shot, and if you think you can integrate it well, go for it. If not, scrap it.

3). I don't see why there would be any problem with the bullpens. Just make sure they're at least 70' long, and at least 15-20' wide.

[APR]

I am really interested in this "green monster" and transparent RF Wall. Are you planning on sketching something out?

[AstroEric]

I'm gonna try.

Here are some questions for the folks at large, but SeanO in particular, since I think he'll know:

1. Is there a good free CAD program that I could be using to do these models? Nothing in my diagram is really to scale, and I can't figure out how to make a proper curved line in Paint Shop to save my life.

2. When editing stadiums in O-Edit, how do you assign textures to parts? Do you have to use what is already assigned?

--Eric

[APR]

You can check the trial version of AutoCAD2006 here.

[five]

Also, you can use gmax or maya personal edition. I'll look for other programs tomorrow.

[Sean O]

I'm gonna try.

Here are some questions for the folks at large, but SeanO in particular, since I think he'll know:

1. Is there a good free CAD program that I could be using to do these models? Nothing in my diagram is really to scale, and I can't figure out how to make a proper curved line in Paint Shop to save my life.

2. When editing stadiums in O-Edit, how do you assign textures to parts? Do you have to use what is already assigned?

--Eric

1). this could be hard, since CAD programs are both expensive, and really difficult to learn. I picked up PSP relatively quickly, and you eventually learn the best way to do things. Bezier curves are difficult in everything you do, and CAD programs are going to really slow things down until you know everything.

2). Gotta use what they give you. But, you can resize the .bmp files the part is linked to, so you can take a small 64 x 64 image and turn it into a 1024 x 1024.

[five]

You can try out blender3d.org it's an open source program.

Never used it, but it seems to have great ratings.