Populous
- Thread starter OnCampusStadiumPitt
- Start date
It is HOK. Changed their name. They designed PNC Park, Heinz Field, and PPG Paints Arena. But some people believe we hired them to design a new weightroom for our olympic sports teams.
the same company that designed PNC, designed Heinz field? Dear lord, talk about following up a masterpiece with a piece of garbage. Or was it the other way around? Not sure which one was up and running first. You literally designed the nicest baseball park in the country and then you have Heinz field. some things are better left off the ol resume.
Heinz was one of (if not THE cheapest) new-age NFL stadiums ever built. Populous was really constrained. To give you an idea, PNC Park cost $216 million. Despite being about twice as large, Heinz only cost $281 million. Lincoln Financial Field in Philly built 2 yeara after Heinz (designed by different firm) cost $512 million. The Steelers built a cheapo no-frills stadium so dont blame Populous.
What is really pertinent is their fine work on locker rooms, student recreation centers, band buildings, and meeting rooms. That's what we need them for......right?
First, I am firmly in the pro-Heinz camp. If Pitt would commit to winning, we would fill it. It's a great situation for Pitt. No maintenance, within reasonable distance. Students just like all other fans will gladly make their way there to watch a winner. And Pitt is The University Of Pittsburgh, not the University of Oakland.
But I fully see the absurdity of the Popolous thing. Not because I think there is some hidden secret stadium objective. It's because I'm highly confident there ISN'T. I'm SURE they are thinking as small as they are claiming ... yet contracted with this giant gorilla of a stadium company for something they most likely could have done with local or even in house expertise. At least outwardly, it seems overkill at best (a dept always always always crying the financial blues when coaches are mentioned, but can buy a Rolls Royce company to design a weight room).
And it's almost a peculiar FU to the (admittedly radical) stadium wing of the fan base, which though delusional on this subject, still are loyal (a quality likely to be in even shorter supply with the basketball program now destroyed). Right or wrong about the stadium, these folks DO care. This bait and switch will test that sorely with this contingent. Look at the false hope it has raised, with ultimate disappointment 100% assured. People don't deal well with constant let downs. With hoops at a national laughingstock level now, and football only just hanging in there, it's not smart business to alienate fans, even a minority, further. Not a big deal in the greater list of ills, but more self-sanctioning of a sort.
Just another example of baffling (mis)management of athletics at Pitt.
But I fully see the absurdity of the Popolous thing. Not because I think there is some hidden secret stadium objective. It's because I'm highly confident there ISN'T. I'm SURE they are thinking as small as they are claiming ... yet contracted with this giant gorilla of a stadium company for something they most likely could have done with local or even in house expertise. At least outwardly, it seems overkill at best (a dept always always always crying the financial blues when coaches are mentioned, but can buy a Rolls Royce company to design a weight room).
And it's almost a peculiar FU to the (admittedly radical) stadium wing of the fan base, which though delusional on this subject, still are loyal (a quality likely to be in even shorter supply with the basketball program now destroyed). Right or wrong about the stadium, these folks DO care. This bait and switch will test that sorely with this contingent. Look at the false hope it has raised, with ultimate disappointment 100% assured. People don't deal well with constant let downs. With hoops at a national laughingstock level now, and football only just hanging in there, it's not smart business to alienate fans, even a minority, further. Not a big deal in the greater list of ills, but more self-sanctioning of a sort.
Just another example of baffling (mis)management of athletics at Pitt.
Fwiw..... the actual renderings of Heinz Field and what was actually and ultimately constructed are polar opposites.
The renderings of the original proposal had the rotunda's completed in the same exterior stone and glass as the rest of Heinz Field.
Instead, what we got was gunmetal Grey walkways and those ridiculous umbrellas.
With a city skyline as beautiful as ours, the idea that someone allowed these stupid umbrellas to be part of the landscape is criminal....
The renderings of the original proposal had the rotunda's completed in the same exterior stone and glass as the rest of Heinz Field.
Instead, what we got was gunmetal Grey walkways and those ridiculous umbrellas.
With a city skyline as beautiful as ours, the idea that someone allowed these stupid umbrellas to be part of the landscape is criminal....
... and then $523M was spent on extending light rail service to the North Shore.
Those umbrellas are definitely sore thumbs. Give the place kind of a giant drone look to it, as if they could be spun like giant propellers and let the stadium launch into the sky ... OMG, that's it, that's the solution for a Pitt Stadium! Make it hoverable! Store it in a vacant area near interstate, maybe even by multiple interstates. Let it make stops north, South, east, West. Pick up suburban fans. Fly to Oakland. Hover it above the Pete (or engineer it to dock into the roof). This let's the students attend without the precious lil snowflakes having to endure a torturous, free 10 min bus ride, and caters to the "games gotta be on our sacred campus, but I'd never ever actually LIVE anywhere near it so make it effortless for me" zealots. The stadium can remain hovering 2 hours before and after each game, to give geezers their chance to wander to Peter's. Then it wooshes up and vanishes to the burbs to stay the other 6 days so as not to offend the egg heads during the week. Forget the freaking track. Now THIS is worth employing Populous ... and Elon Musk...for!
Actually the funny thing is that Populous has done numerous small projects on college campuses like building baseball, softball and soccer facilities as well as other facilities such as, wait for it, Kansas' strength training facility and a new training facility for the University of New Mexico.
Oops.
Shhhhhh...They are designing a stadium to be built in the parking lot of the PAA. Don't be so cynical.
Absurdity is not knowing what architectural firms do, where they have offices, or what Pitt's in-house capability for facilities planning is and then making outlandish comments about it based on nothing but assumptions which are in turn based on nothing. Pitt's publicly talked about what and what they are not studying. It's freakin' public.
Not, however, as absurd as the idea that false hopes have been raised for the delusional stadium soldiers. They've been told essentially the same facts for 17 years...by people leading Pitt, by people that post on these message boards, by essentially everyone but their own mythology generating selves. If being a Pitt fan is contingent on the possibility of someday playing again in an on-campus stadium, then they really need to find a new program to cheer for because it isn't going to happen just like everyone has told them 20 times a year since Gate A was shuttered for good. It really doesn't matter if it was a horrible idea to close Pitt Stadium or not, the debate over playing on-campus was decided, essentially permanently, in 1998.
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LOLOL! Isn't it a shame to be on the outside looking in... again. Small and near-sighted does not make for a great university and state-of-the art athletic facilities.
WWW.NEWPITTSTADIUM.COM
