Rather than the same old song and dance, professor Tony Costello afforded his architecture students a different opportunity during their recently concluded summer studio: create a new Ball State University baseball stadium.
Such a hands-on approach is nothing new to students within the department, he said, but thanks to an $8,000 grant from the National Concrete Masonry Association, Costello said he planned to submit the best design for actual consideration by athletics administration.
As a result, 17 architecture and landscape architecture students teamed into four groups to contrive the best baseball stadium concrete masonry can create. The grant paid for students to travel to schools throughout the area to accurately gauge how other newer facilities have been developed.
Following specific guidelines suggested by Associate Athletics Director Pat Quinn, Costello said he and his students were able to analyze stadiums from MAC schools such as the University of Dayton and Miami University of Ohio. They also viewed Big East Conference venues at the universities of Louisville and Cincinnati.
"When we went to see the other stadiums, [Quinn] made a point to say 'Look at the way they handle certain aspects,'" Costello said. "That was very, very enlightening to both the students and myself because you really get a good sense of what makes a collegiate stadium."
Costello said this project allowed students to learn how to design in a team format and work under an intense time schedule. The elective course was not a requirement but an open invitation without any promise of long-term success, he said.
"Right out of the gate, students knew this was all hypothetical - their projects may or may not be implemented," Costello said.
Still, they continued with designs Costello said were both realistic and relatively inexpensive.
Junior architecture major Jessie Rabideau said she was not much of a baseball fan, but a tennis enthusiast. Still, she said the project helped her love for the game grow.
"I actually didn't really like baseball that much at first, but after we got into it and got to visit the stadiums, I think I really gained a lot of appreciation for the game - at the very least, I don't dislike it anymore," she said.
She said it was especially helpful to see a game at Cincinnati's Marge Schott Stadium, which she said added to the learning experience.
While her team placed second in the overall contest to accumulate $500 of the $2,750 total jackpot, Rabideau said the money hardly compared to the overall experience she and her classmates gained through teamwork.
"I've only done [architecture group projects] once before, so I've had some experience working on those," she said. "The group that I was in was really a great group, and I'm glad [Costello] decided to make it a group project - it was a good experience."
Overall, Michael Brunner, Jake Ebling and Andy Hesterman received the $1,000 first prize for their work. which included three phases of construction and environmentally sustainable roofs that captured rainwater to store for irrigation.
Aside from the initial phase of stadium seating, the trio created second and third phases that would allow for additional stadium seating and specialized locker rooms. Costello said, if implemented, this design could be the blueprint to Ball State hosting the MAC tournament and possibly an NCAA regional contest.
Still, Quinn said, while the university was looking down the road to making enhancements, nothing was set in stone for the near future. He said his department would still go through the standard process all new facilities on campus undergo.
"Our long-range goals in the next few years include looking at a fundraising campaign for both the baseball and softball facilities," Quinn said. "We would not take students' ideas and run with it."
Quinn said university-employed architects would step in at that point, but Costello said the student ideas already were cost effective and maintained the university's standards of quality.
"Although we didn't stress budget, I think for the most part students did a pretty responsible job of designing buildings that are not outlandish or outside what we would say is the current design quality of [last year's] football stadium upgrade," Costello said. "I think they gave [Quinn] a lot of ammunition, so to speak, when he takes these designs before fellow administrators."
So far, Quinn said he had not yet formally presented any of the designs, and to this point nothing had been set for doing so. He also adamantly stressed there would be no future plans to name such a facility after the students who designed it, but after a former university president or donor.
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