It’s impressive that Dodger Stadium is still standing after all these years.
After all, since its opening in 1962, at least twelve other MLB stadiums have long been built up and torn down. You could say it’s because of the
Stadium’s history – and it’s got plenty of history. The “pitcher’s ballpark” was the framework for
Wally‘s Moonshots. It was the site of
Sandy Koufax’s perfect game. The birthplace of
Fernandomania. The host of ten
World Series Games.
But it’s really thanks to style, not status, that old
Dodger Stadium is still around and alive in the hearts of many. The
Stadium’s unbeatable good-looks can mostly be credited to luck. It was conceptualized at a very lucky time and place in design history:
Los Angeles, circa 1962. The city of the future, flush with cash and big dreams. The era it was built in gave the
Stadium the organic shapes, clean lines, and sprinkle of futurism that belongs to mid-century American modernism. But its color palette is entirely the credit of the technicolor dreamscapes of Southern California. It’s no wonder that the
Stadium has long maintained solid status on lists of the top-ten-most-Instagrammed places in the world.
Although it was the only ballpark to harness the design fever of modernism, the
Stadium’s design is unparalleled because it also works with and within the natural landscape. Builders literally moved mountains in order to carve the
Stadium into the hillsides of Stone Quarry, with carved spiral entrances going directly into each seating level. This hard-won vantage point allowed
MLB fans rustic views of downtown
Los Angeles over one shoulder, and the slopes of the mighty San Gabriel Mountains over the other. Each seating level was painted one of six pastel shades – inspired by the
Los Angeles sunset – which helped frame and blend with the surrounding views.
If we’re talking about being dedicated to one’s surrounding environment, I’ll tell you one another thing the
Dodgers have going for them – they’re the only team in
MLB history to keep a full-time arborist on staff. Every terraced parking lot is decorated with massive martini-glass-shaped planters. Mature forests of native plants dot the surrounding hills, and in recent years, brightly-colored drought-resistant plants can be spotted from the bleachers.
Most parks have long since been renovated. But it’s thanks to
Dodger Stadium‘s unbeatable unique style that owners have worked to preserve and restore, rather than replace or update, the ballpark’s original features. Because great history? There’s just no replacing that.