Sports & Entertainment - Award of Merit

Citizens Bank Park
Philadelphia, Pa.

Citizens Bank Park, the new home of the Philadelphia Phillies, is much more than just another retro-inspired major league ballpark.

The $346 million, 43,500-seat facility is a striking tribute to the game of baseball and the city of Philadelphia.

Inspired by storied local baseball landmarks such as Shibe Park (later called Connie Mack Stadium) and the Baker Bowl, Citizens Bank Park recaptures the intimacy of the old ballparks with an openness that keeps fans constantly connected with the game.

With the playing field recessed 23 ft. below grade, the precast concrete lower seating bowl rises to an open street-level concourse bordered on three sides by three-story brick and glass buildings housing the main ticket office, administrative offices, concessions and restaurants and family entertainment areas.

Openness also defines the ballpark's cantilevered lower and upper decks, both in terms of the views and the exposed steel structural system. Reminiscent of many Philadelphia-area bridges, the 17- to 33-ft. cantilevered steel open-lattice trusses are spaced approximately 42.5 ft. apart to support the precast and cast-in-place concrete seating tiers.

Exposed steel is also prominent in the park's other signature elements - the 170-ft.-tall light towers flanking the entry plazas, and the 2,759-sq.-ft. video display scoreboard atop the left-field stands.

"This isn't just a project, it's an urban statement," said one judge. "The stadium was integrated into the city, and I love that about it. It's just great."

Creating this field of dreams presented more than a few nightmares for the construction team, led by Driscoll/Hunt of Philadelphia. The site for the stadium is directly in the path of the main route for all major utilities serving Philadelphia's south end, and it required an intensive utility relocation process that included the carefully coordinated switchover of two 66 kV electrical feeds serving the Philadelphia Navy Yard and a nearby food distribution center.

Because the playing field is located approximately 10 ft. below the water table, a deep well and temporary dewatering system were needed to control the flows of two aquifers during the excavation of more than 440,000 cu. yd. of fill material originally dredged from the Delaware River.

More than 4,400 steel H-piles driven 80 to 110 ft. to a reliable substrate of dense sand and clay were used to support waterproofed caps, structural foundation slabs and walls, which create a waterproof bathtub for the field and lower seating bowl.

A system of drainage piping, 24 deep wells and collection chambers keeps the playing field dry by relieving hydrostatic pressure approximately 30 ft. below the surface, while tension straps on the piles ensure that the foundation can provide the needed support for the vertical loads.

Although the opening of Citizens Bank Park in April spelled the end of the Phillies' former home, Veterans Stadium, the old facility is hardly forgotten. Demolition rubble was combined with fill from the Citizens Bank Park excavation to regrade the Veterans Stadium site into a landscaped 5,500-space parking lot, complete with a painted outline of the Vet's playing field and granite markers at the locations of home plate, bases and pitching mound.

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