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Southwest University Park

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2014, Populous. 1 Ballpark Plaza

Although architects of many late-twentieth- and early-twenty-first-century baseball parks succumbed to nostalgia for the character of early-twentieth-century urban ballparks, the field for the El Paso Chihuahuas Triple-A team incorporates materials and influences from nearby Union Passenger Station (EP12) without reverting to mimicry. The stadium is wedged into an unusually tight site for a baseball stadium (including active, depressed train tracks along the south side), and the entrance is marked by a corner tower and two brick-framed structures, echoing the red brick of the station. The metal panels and diagonal framing of long lateral enclosures recall railroad boxcar construction, and the copper-colored roofing relates to the ASARCO copper-smelting industry that formerly was located just to the west. The spare, industrial character of the stadium’s open steel construction is a backdrop for art. The tower displays a three-story-tall stained glass mural, River Chronicle: History of El Paso by local Roberto Davidoff. Other works include nine murals by Gáspar Enríquez on the history of baseball in El Paso and an aluminum screen, Not Whole Fence by Ball-Nogues Studio of Los Angeles, patterned to evoke historic wooden outfield fences and integrated with the fence that surrounds the park.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

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Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Southwest University Park", [El Paso, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-EP11.

Print Source

Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019, 478-478.

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