Jimmy John's Field - Utica, MI
Utica, Michigan. A $15 million independent league ballpark at Auburn and Moscone Drive. 2017 Phoenix Award for Community Impact and People's Choice Award. 2017 ACEC Michigan Engineering Eminent Conceptor Award.
General Sports Entertainment was building a new professional league and needed a first ballpark that could be repeated in new markets. Pendulum was selected to design the prototype.
Program and scope carry from market to market, but the big idea was to let site and context govern the design, so each park earns its own character rather than arriving as a copy.
The site had been an unregulated landfill for household waste and required significant environmental remediation, which is the kind of parcel most projects walk away from. Taking it on is what made the economics work. The park is now breaking attendance records and acting as a vital economic driver.
S.C.O.R.E. Site Integration. Revenue Innovation. Community Connection.
In the press: USA TODAY Sports Weekly on Jimmy John’s Field, a textbook example of innovation in sports architecture.
