VenuesNow: Talking Points

VenuesNow Magazine - Talking Points

featuring Pendulum Principal/Owner Jonathan Cole on page 10 of the July 2019 Edition

VenuesNow gave its Front Row page to Jonathan O’Neil Cole, and the answers explain the studio better than a capabilities list would.

He expected to grow up in fine art. He freelanced as an illustrator for a greeting card company in high school and worked as a framer in an art supply store through college. His first job in the industry was at HNTB, in the Irvine office. The favourite part of the work has not changed since: taking a design from lines on paper to a building that opens and functions.

The mentors answer is the origin of everything Pendulum argues about economics. Henry Stickney, former chief executive of Mandalay Baseball Properties, taught him to design sports facilities with operations and pro forma in the forefront, because that is what makes a venue economically sustainable. Chip Moore, executive vice president of the Atlanta Braves, taught him to understand the deal and to hold a vision that runs past the ballpark itself. His father, Jonathan Cole Sr, is the third name on the list.

Best day on the job: finishing CoolToday Park for the Braves in North Port, Florida, and walking the finished facility on opening day with Chip Moore, who had a hundred other things to do and spent the time anyway. Worst day: learning a project would not be built on schedule.

On the twelve year mark he was blunt about the timing. Pendulum launched at the very beginning of the economic downturn and has had a measure of success in a competitive marketplace since.

Source: “Front Row: Talking Points”, VenuesNow, July 2019, volume 18 number 7, page 10.

The framework Pendulum uses to judge a venue as a long term civic and financial system is set out in S.C.O.R.E.